{"id":2492,"date":"2019-11-24T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=2492"},"modified":"2020-01-16T12:32:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T17:32:13","slug":"god-forgive-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2019\/11\/24\/god-forgive-them\/","title":{"rendered":"God Forgive Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/chapel\/av\/podcasts\/sundayservices\/MarshChapel112419.mp3\">Click here to hear the full service<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=441618999\">Jeremiah 23:1-6<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=441619153\">Colossians 1:11-20<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">Luke 23:33-43<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/av\/chapel\/podcasts\/sundayservices\/sermon\/Sermon112419.mp3\">Click here to hear just the sermon<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u201cWe seek to truly see each other as beloved children of God.\u00a0 Our calling is to empower our neighbors and ourselves to love hopeful lives and gratefully offer our own gifts for the glory of God. We are called to share our authentic selves with our neighbors in right relationship\u201d\u2026. \u2013 The Rev. Joseph Wallace-Williams<\/p>\n<p>Who is Your Jesus?<\/p>\n<p>Who is Your Jesus?<\/p>\n<p>Today is the last Sunday of Pentecost.\u00a0 Also known as Christ the King Sunday.\u00a0 I invite you to reflect on who has your Jesus been for the past church year.\u00a0 My Jesus is always changing.\u00a0 My Jesus is not the same Jesus of my childhood or even a few years ago.\u00a0 Life experiences, pray and the study of scripture feed my \u201cJesus Roots\u201d and deepen them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Jesus of my youth \u2013 church school Jesus<\/li>\n<li>The Jesus of my teens \u2013 questioning Jesus in the world<\/li>\n<li>The Jesus of my 20\u2019s \u2013 Jesus who?<\/li>\n<li>The Jesus of my 30\u2019s \u2013 globalized Jesus, forgiving Jesus, sustaining Jesus, life-changing Jesus<\/li>\n<li>The Jesus of my 40\u2019s \u2013 womanist Jesus, radical Jesus<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What has been your personal journey with Jesus?<\/p>\n<p>Except for my 20\u2019s my Jesus has always been in tandem with other people\u2019s Jesus\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Christ the King Sunday is a relatively new development.\u00a0 It does not bear the history of many long held church traditions such as All Saints and All Souls.\u00a0 I once heard by one of my clergy colleagues that he glosses over this Sunday because it\u2019s too Catholic. I remember in seminary when during our weekly Eucharist one of my classmates shoved the bulletin back in my hand stating that \u201cshe refused to participate in a liturgy with patriarchal language.\u00a0 Looking back I think she missed the point.<\/p>\n<p>This Feast Sunday was brought into the church\u2019s liturgical year by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to advance the message of God in Christ over and against the political questions regarding papal territories, and in response to growing secularism, nationalism and anti-clericalism.\u00a0 Addressed to the hierarchy of the church the document warns that \u201cas long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>While we may find the Popes words archaic our take away is \u201cDo we belong to Christ or do we belong to the world\u201d\u00a0 Pope Pius was moving into a world that was about to usher in the rule of Hitler and Mussolini so his statements were bold a provocative but those words and statements are very relevant for our life in the world today.<\/p>\n<p>As we lead up to an election year candidates for all office tout that God is on their side and all we have to do is support their coronation by casting our vote.<\/p>\n<p>The royal crowns rattle in the church\u2019s cupboard every election year.\u00a0 What\u2019s the reason for this fascination?\u00a0 Perhaps it\u2019s based on a lust for raw political power.\u00a0 Perhaps the unreserved endorsement of candidates who support \u201cfaith-based initiatives\u201d stems from the anxiety that pervades our time and culture.<\/p>\n<p>However we are mostly uncomfortable with the notion of Kingship.\u00a0 The notion of a King reflects on principles that America was not built upon.\u00a0 The notion of King also means big shoes to fill.\u00a0 My dear friend Carl\u00a0 (name changed) belongs to a family long held to be as quoted in the press \u201cAmerica\u2019s royalty\u201d.\u00a0 I once asked Carl what is what like to be part of that family dynasty.\u00a0 He laughed and said for the most part people leave him alone, except for his public display of drunkenness over two decades ago and his admitted botched and ill-fated attempt at a career change.\u00a0 He said since I look like my mother\u2019s side of the family I am unrecognizable in public.\u00a0 I am able to be left alone to do the work of trying to leave the world a better place than I sound it.\u00a0 \u201cI have my faith and my family, my humility and my gratitude and it has taken me a lot of years, and a lot of life experiences to work that out\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Our readings on this Christ the King Sunday, challenge us to examine our priorities and to see who- or what \u2013 holds our allegiance.\u00a0 As I see it there are two ways of looking at this Kingship.\u00a0 The King of our outward being and appearances and the King of our inwards hearts.<\/p>\n<p>If we belong to the Christ King of the world our outward being is the one who nods and pays lip service to issues of injustice, oppression of the other in any form.\u00a0 You know the people who are on committees or involved in activities that make them feel better, but not willing to do the deep internal radical welcoming work that will bring systemic change.<\/p>\n<p>But the Christ King that occupies a place in our hearts in about servant leadership.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if their name is on the committee.\u00a0 There work is one on one getting to know the other better.\u00a0 Being an ally, and all that involves for deep systemic and personal change.\u00a0 Because when you are an ally, when you support when you feel, when you are able to get out of the way of your ego.\u00a0 Then the deep work of empathy, change, restorative justice can take place.\u00a0 If we belong to the Christ King of our hearts we forgive.<\/p>\n<p>Forgiveness is one of the hardest things that we can do.\u00a0 As my friend Donnie was famous for saying \u201cGod forgives you immediately, but it takes me a while\u201d.\u00a0 In her reflection piece for Parabola Magazine entitled \u201cForgiving: The Art of Mercy\u201d the author and speaker Mirabai Starr begins with a litany of \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m so sorry that I broke your heart that I was too demanding of your approval.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry I was so quiet. I\u2019m sorry I interpreted your rejection as rejection, rather than as the cry for love that it really was\u201d.\u00a0 She then moves in to her forgiving: I forgive you.\u00a0 I forgive you for talking about me behind my back.\u00a0 I forgive you for not seeing me.\u00a0 I forgive you for being blind to your own shadow, for your participation in institutionalized racism, misogyny, heteronormativity.\u00a0 I forgive you for the slave trade, for sex trafficking, for treating garbage collectors like garbage. I forgive you for putting profits ahead of people, technology ahead of clean air and water, head ahead of heart.<\/p>\n<p>Forgiving you was the best thing I ever did. Forgiving you set the bird of my heart winging through the universe.<\/p>\n<p>So here we are in the last week of the Christian year where we are about to enter into the midst of the turkey coma, and a secular world that tells us that we really need this that and the other to make us feel better, can we make room for the sole source of divine power and reign, Jesus Christ?\u00a0 So once again in the midst of this \u201cWho is your Jesus?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Centuries before Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah address the issue of kingly power as he strongly denounced the leaders of Judah for abusing their authority.\u00a0 Jeremiah looks toward the future where the followers will be brought back into the fold.\u00a0 A place where they will be guided and protected by a loving God.<\/p>\n<p>The reading from Colossians was written in response to a dispute within the community.\u00a0 The question that they raised was \u201cwhat exactly was accomplished by Jesus\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>So if we use these lens\u2019 to look at this last Sunday before Advent this Christ the King Sunday reminds us of our Jesus we are reminded of the ultimate price Jesus paid for US.<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s Gospel we are told that two criminals were crucified with Jesus.\u00a0 The first man mocks Jesus saying if you are the Messiah then save yourself.\u00a0 He was interested in his own well-being, and reflected the attitude of those who followed Jesus for what they hoped to gain.<\/p>\n<p>The second man had a very different attitude.\u00a0 What has been described as being the gospel within the gospel.\u00a0 The man recognized his own sin and the innocence of Jesus \u2026 we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.\u00a0 He then turned to Jesus with a profession of FAITH as he asked that Jesus remember him in his Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus answered with an assurance of forgiveness and eternal life.\u00a0 \u201cTruly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.\u00a0 Here salvation was extended first of all to a repentant criminal, who would now share eternal life with the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>Where are we are in our lives in terms of our capacity for forgiveness? An article from The New Yorker titled The Afghan Way of Death: Upended Peace Talks. Civilian casualities keep climbing. Afghans are suffering more than ever, dated October 28<sup>th<\/sup> tells many stories of a suffering people but the one story that stood out for me was the story of Jamila Afghani, a promoter of gender equality.\u00a0 She tells the story of seven-year old Ahmad and eight year old Shadh Agha who were born in a rural part of Ghazni Province.\u00a0 Their father Noor Agha was a farmer.\u00a0 After the night raids intensified in his village, he decided to move the family to the city.\u00a0 This required abandoning his land and his livelihood, which plunged them into poverty.\u00a0 The father arranged for his sister to be married to obtain a bride price.\u00a0 Ahmad and Shah Agha made the wedding invitations and accompanied Noor Agha when he delivered their work to the groom\u2019s family who lived in another neighborhood. According to Afghani, police officers in the area, identifying a strange vehicle, opened fire without warning. Noor Agha was killed and Ahmed sustained a glancing wound on his face. When Noor Agha\u2019s father heard the news, he had a heart attack and died. The money from the marriage was spent on funerals and medical bills, Afghani said.\u00a0 Ahmed and Shah Agha moved in with their grandmother and Afghani paid to send then to a private school \u2013 which had just been bombed and the boys had been wounded by shrapnel.\u00a0 Afghani was in tears when she finished telling the story \u201cWhy are you killing us?\u201d She wailed at a conference she was attending.\u00a0 One of the other participants told of his being tortured and said to the gathered group, \u201cI am willing to forgive you for what you have done to me and the rest of society. But that forgiveness must have meaning. The meaning lies in your heart not in the world.\u00a0 Are we not called to love and to love abundantly.<\/p>\n<p>We mark the end of the church year today as next week we begin the season of Advent. A season to once again look and reflect on who is your Jesus.\u00a0 A season of God\u2019s love for us.\u00a0 A season that is marked by an expected anticipation.\u00a0 We will be reminded of the anticipation and fear of a teenage unwed mother to be.\u00a0 We will be reminded of the light of Christ birth that will shine upon all of us without exception.\u00a0 We will take these shorter winter days to be in reflection, contemplation and exploration of the one who loves us beyond all measure.\u00a0 The one who forgave and was gracious even in death.<\/p>\n<p>After service today we will be making Advent Wreaths.\u00a0 I started making Advent wreaths with the youth when I was serving at Christ Episcopal Church Needham.\u00a0 It was a time of wonderful organized chaos.\u00a0 But it is also a time of narrowing down and focusing in.\u00a0 I invite you to take the coming week to prepare for Advent much like we would prepare for Lent.\u00a0 Find time for quiet reflection and contemplation.\u00a0 If you have an Advent wreath put it out early or reflect on the wreath you made. Water it with intention and prayer.<\/p>\n<p>We are all invited to the throne room where Christ is exalted and worshiped.\u00a0 We have come full circle in our church year and are at the end of this journey and ready to move on the next.\u00a0 Who is the Jesus that you take with you into the next year?\u00a0 Jesus the living God, the living King is found right here and right now in the midst of us, in the midst of our secular and over commercialized world, in the midst of canned Christmas music at every store that you will enter over the holidays.<\/p>\n<p>This is all good news that we celebrate here today.\u00a0 Jesus is King throughout the year, throughout all time and in every place.\u00a0 There is an expression about turning your will and life over to the care of God it ends with the statement\u00a0 \u201cThere is a God and I\u2019m not it\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We don\u2019t need to seek another king.<\/li>\n<li>We now longer have to judge one another<\/li>\n<li>We don\u2019t have to control what other people think and feel or force then to fit our expectations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What happens is that in this control filled society:<\/p>\n<p>we find power,<\/p>\n<p>we find the reign of God when we let go,<\/p>\n<p>when we realize that the reign of God is here and now, here in our hearts, here in our community both physically at Marsh and elsewhere one is connected to us!<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a liberating idea.<\/p>\n<p>Who is your Jesus?<\/p>\n<p>Amen<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">&#8211;<em><span>The Rev. Dr. Karen Coleman, Associate Chaplain for Episcopal Students<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Click here to hear the full service Jeremiah 23:1-6 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43 Click here to hear just the sermon \u201cWe seek to truly see each other as beloved children of God.\u00a0 Our calling is to empower our neighbors and ourselves to love hopeful lives and gratefully offer our own gifts for the glory of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2492"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2602,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492\/revisions\/2602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}