Advent Two: Slowness...

 

Advent Two: Slowness

 

2 Peter 3:8-15a 
3:8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

3:9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

3:11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness,

3:12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

3:13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

3:14 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish;

3:15a and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. 

 

Here's my list of things that happen too slowly: a good steak finishing on the grill; my wife admitting I was right about something; losing weight; Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins improving; my electric car, charging at a paid “fast” charger; Congress—period; and church ending on a Communion Sunday. Oh, the list is actually much longer, but I’m sparing you the agony; and besides, I’m sure as you read these few slowness “peeves,” you began thinking of your OWN list. My dad once told me that the motto of the military service was “hurry up and wait.” Having seen the musical “1776,” it would seem this is in our national DNA.

 

When it comes to things we are expecting, we are a bunch of impatient waiters. Of course, when considering things for which WE are responsible, and for which others are waiting for US, we like to suggest they “keep their pants on.” It’s all a matter of perspective, I guess.

 

So it is with the “end of the age,” as the author of Second Peter would remind us. The members of the early church knew what it was like to have Jesus around—many of them, first-hand. They also comforted one another, especially when the persecution rained down on them, with the “promise” Jesus seemed to have given them that he was NOT deaf to their suffering, and that they were part of his “this generation will not pass away until all of these [apocalyptic] things take place” teaser. Their anticipation of Jesus’ return to vanquish their “foes” and set up a just theocracy was exponentially multiplied by the severity of the challenges they faced as a fledgling faith community under the thumb of Rome. Their disillusionment that their suffering was in close proximity and Jesus seemed far off was obviously weighing on the leaders of the church, hence narratives like this passage in this week’s lectionary. Let’s ponder that phrase from 9: “as some think of slowness.”

 

How do YOU think of slowness? Is it your spouse’s promise six weeks ago that he would get the dishwasher fixed? Is it your impatience with the Pittsburgh Steelers returning to “greatness”? Or is it your take that “election cycles” are now perpetual, and produce only duds, for the most part? I’ll bet that for some of you, “slowness” might be a “kind” label for how quickly God is answering your prayers. The early church was expecting a cataclysmic answer, and one that would put them in the catbird seat, once the Romans were set aside. Many modern “evangelicals” are looking for the same escape hatch, but meanwhile, quite a few have adopted the “Trump is the answer” stopgap philosophy. (I just read an interview with Tim Alberta, author of the new bestseller, “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory. Alberta spent time with Trump-promoting Christians, [Or at least Trump-leaning] evangelicals, and details their belief that, like the Old Testament prophets, Donald Trump may be “God’s man” to move along the apocalypse. They have set aside Trump’s moral failures and “authoritarianism,” replacing it with the idea that God often uses “inferior” vessels. Trump would certainly be the “Trump card” of THAT concept!)

 

The early church was dead wrong, that Jesus was going to return soon to rescue them. The Trump evangelicals will turn out to have been wrong, too—maybe dead wrong—if they help him get re-elected and be the “day one” dictator he has promised to be. Their “Christian nationalism”—a political baptizing of their theology and beliefs, forced upon a diverse nation—could destroy our representative democracy. This is precisely what the Founders feared, and what Ben Franklin was referring to when he said, “[You have] a Republic, if you can keep it.] Frankly, as I read my Bible, Donald Trump fits the description of what the apocalyptic writers call the “Anti-Christ,” more than any prophet or savior I find in scripture.

 

The movement still persists among more moderate evangelicals that it will take Jesus’ return to fix the earth, because they believe it has become so “corrupt.” Author Alberta, who is a “born again” Christian, himself, opines that the church has performed a dangerous “flip-flop.” The first iteration of the church offered love, forgiveness, and redemption to the world, without judging its “worthiness” of it, but internally, held one another accountable for growth in faith and discipleship, both to glorify God, AND to be a credible witness to the world when they were “in it, and not of it.” The church today—at least in its most “conservative” iterations—DOES judge the world for its “sins,” and prays that Jesus will show up to smite it, while behind the scenes schmoozing with harlots and vagabonds, to build a powerbase. Alberta visited a raft of “evangelical” churches, and what he heard from almost every pulpit was a “baptizing” of the Fox News (or NewsMax) broadcast “highlights” from the previous week. The message, “It’s US against THEM,” and the myriad conspiracy theories that support it, SELLS! Alberta’s Dad got converted and became an evangelical pastor, and one who got caught up in some of the “justification” of Donald Trump before he died, and in preaching this “Us against THEM” message, he grew his church from 100 to over 1,500. 

 

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away, yours truly told my first church that I could preach a message that would pack the church. What Alberta is observing NOW, I told them would “sell” over 36 years ago. (Since I was a student pastor, and that church was experiencing some financial “hard times,” a few people WANTED me to preach those messages!) However, I told them this “US against THEM,” no matter how popular, was NOT the message of John Wesley, and CERTAINLY not the message of Jesus Christ. It was about that time that the United Methodist Church came out with the “Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors—the People of The United Methodist Church” slogan, which I told them was a good start at heralding the true beliefs of the Christian faith. It was a message the world needed to hear, but it was NOT popular, especially in conservative quarters. The outcome is what Alberta details in his book—young people eschewing the Christian church, seeing it as a divisive, judgmental, and un-diverse entity.

 

For those of you who would like to read the transcript of the Alberta interview, here is the link:

 

Interview with Tim Alberta, author of "The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory"

 

Unfortunately, in 2023, much of the “Good News” of the church has skewed heavily toward the “US against THEM” message. The “prosperity” gospel promises “rewards” for being faithful to “God” (actually the theology of the one preaching it). LGBTQ persons are seen as the “enemy from without,” in a concerted effort to KEEP them from getting “in.” “Pro-Life” has come to mean NO abortions at ANY cost, even in the case of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is endangered, and the same people who scream this “Pro-Life” message want to cut public assistance of every kind for new mothers! Oh, and most of them oppose ANY form of “gun control,” even in the face of what seem like an epidemic of mass shootings. Capital punishment? They’re in favor of it. “Pro-Life” means nothing but NO ABORTION, and some even add the mantle of NO BIRTH CONTROL. The modern evangelical church seems bent on putting people between the proverbial “rock and a hard place,” and then slamming the two together. 

 

It gets worse. Slinking deep behind the scenes of many an “evangelical” and their churches is a “secret” belief that the United States was founded as a “Christian” nation (it categorically WASN’T), and that “Making America Great Again” means subjugating all other religions to our “state” religion. Slinking even DEEPER behind the scenes is the belief that “white men” should be kept in charge, and this belief follows many—even some who claim to eschew it—into the privacy of the voting booth. 

 

The early church learned a hard lesson by believing a for a little too long that Jesus would “snatch” them out of the persecution they faced. Thankfully, they scattered across the world, taking the initial “Jesus” message of love, forgiveness, and redemption with them. The modern “evangelical” church is “cruisin’ for a brusin’” by alienating those outside of their walls with a message of judgment and condemnation, followed by a political “power grab” in an effort to institutionalize and force their beliefs on the populace. It won’t work, in the grand scheme of things, and it won’t last. Let us hope that the WHOLE of the Christian church won’t go down with it!

 

Believe it or not, the candle of PEACE is what we’re lighting this week. If there is anything that “personifies” slowness, it is arrival of PEACE in this world. It’s no wonder that Jesus said people would cry, “Peace, peace…” but there is no peace. I’ve detailed a few barriers the modern church has actually CREATED against peace. “Speeding up” the coming of peace must begin with tearing down THESE walls, and repenting of being God’s “judges,” rather than the Gospel’s heralds. Ask yourself, What IS the message we should be shouting from the housetops? I’m guessing it’s the one of grace, compassion, and welcome to ALL of the people of God, not an angry word of judgment.

 

As I have done so many times over many “second weeks” of Advent, when lighting the candle for Peace, I close this message with an Ann Weems poem, “Searching for Shalom”:

 

I keep searching for shalom,

            Drawing my water from one well after another—

            But still I thirst.

For the shower of blessing

            That is shalom.

 

I yearn

            For life to be just and merciful and peaceful,

            But the streets are filled with daily deaths

Of Spirit and of flesh

            …but no shalom.

 

I keep searching for shalom,

            Away from crowds and commotion,

            But peace and quiet

Don’t blot the pain

            Of broken hearts and broken bodies.

 

I keep searching for shalom

            Thinking perhaps I’ll find it

            In a quiet field of flowers

Or in star or sea or snow,

            But still the innocent are trampled.

 

I keep searching for shalom,

            Standing in holy places,

            Sitting among saints.

Surely in the sanctuary

            I will find shalom.

 

Beyond cathedral walls

            And above ethereal music,

            The blaring din of death persists.

Back in the streets,

            The people walk in darkness.

 

I keep searching for shalom.

            I have pursued

            And sought it.

Have I looked in all

            The wrong places?

 

What is this bonding,

            This glue among us,

            This cohesiveness

That holds us in the hope

            Of shalom?

 

The longing won’t die.

            The hope keeps emerging

            Like a new sprout

That perseveres on the stump 

of a felled tree.

Even in the daily barrage

            Of obscenities 

            Some new star melts

Into my eyes

            And the promise persists.

 

Here in the darkness

            Some new light

            Stirs within me.

Here in the streets

            I find shalom.

 

Shalom lives

            Not in the sanctuary,

            But in the streets…

In chaos

            On a cross.

 

In the face of Jesus

            Is the peace

            That passes all understanding

The everlasting Sabbath…

            Shalom!

 

Amen.