Sermon Blog
|
Sermon Blog
|
Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
Proper 23, Year A October 11, 2020 Four years ago, a series came out on NBC called “The Good Place.” It featured some A list actors and garnered critical praise. The show was based in the afterlife, where people who had achieved a high-level moral score in their mortal life got to live in a utopian “Good Place,” presumably, heaven. It is a nice enough and all of the people are just lovely, if not a little bland. Others, we are told, are consigned to the “Bad Place,” about which we learn very little. The whole plot takes a turn when the main protagonist and her only friend in the “Good Place” begin to believe that they have slipped through by mistake. Both of them are not all that nice and they find the rest of the people there really boring, too good, and uninteresting. The head “Good Place” guy senses her discomfort, denies that there could have been an error, and assigns them moral coaches to help their experience. Eventually, the main characters discover that really, they are in the “Bad Place” and they have been thrust into a fake “Good Place” as punishment and reproof, and the so-called moral coaches are really punishing demons After that, I confess that I tuned out. It was a good idea, but it ran its course. I did learn that in the final season, they were given the chance to return to their earthly life. Their memories of the afterlife were erased, and they are given a chance for an earthly do over. Then, the show was cancelled. Probably, that was best. Good places and bad places are front and center in all of our lessons for today. In Exodus, we hear of the whole golden calf caper in which the people, fearing that Moses has left them, and God has abandoned them, revert to some old pagan ways, melting down their gold and crafting an image of a god that they can worship as a thing, requiring no real relationship or commitment. In a frenzy, they forgot all that had been done for them, lost faith, and took themselves to a bad place. In the Ten Commandments movie, that scene was scandalously reviewed as lewd and provocatively costumed. It was a crude caricature of hedonistic pleasure seeking that did not end well. The people looked silly. It could have ended poorly, but God had mercy on their foolishness, and got them back on track. It is cautionary tale for us to remember the God’s blessing even when we feel lost or confused. Matthew’s gospel offers yet another perplexing parable in which a king throws a wedding feast and the guests cannot be bothered to accept his largess. After exacting a violent revenge, the king then sends his servants out into the streets to gather whoever is there to be his celebratory guests. One poor soul, apparently clueless, turns up without the proper attire, and he is summarily thrown out into the outer darkness. Then we get the stern line that “many are called, but few are chosen.” It identifies the bad place as outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. If you have ever perseverated in the night and ground your teeth, you get the picture. It is a hell of our own making. Far from a complete metaphor for God’s grace, the parable introduces the themes of judgement and exclusion from the God’s kingdom. It is meant as a swipe at the religious elites. It is a scandalous exposé. It might leave us wondering and nervous about how we are clothed and whether we are destined for the “Good Place” at all. Fortunately, that is not the end of the story, but the parable leaves us hanging. It is not a bad idea to consider our role in owning God’s goodness and love, even if our destiny is not all up to us. The ideas heaven and hell are so various and so laden with human contrivances that it is really hard to accept or understand how or why a God of love would set us up to fail. We are left wondering about the calculus of salvation but, looking deeply at the whole of the story, it seems that the bad places are places of our own creation. As we build and adhere to structures of materialism, envy, avarice, exclusion, and separation, we establish hellish ways doing life. Cutting ourselves off from grace, love, forgiveness, and community, we attempt to go it all alone: us against them, might as right, and above all, me first, we get lost and more alone than ever. I almost wish we could have read from Paul’s letter to the Philippians after the difficult Gospel. In the midst of our confusion and wonder, Paul sends a love letter of encouragement. Certainly, if St. Paul had a greatest hits album, these verses would be on it: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” He offers a guide to living in a good place. Instead of seeing the Kingdom of God as something to be realized in the future, he offers a way to be kingdom people in the here and now. It is a tall order to rejoice always, not to worry, and to live in constant prayer, but the last line offers a peace which is pure grace. He asks us to practice the presence of God rather than waiting for some future reckoning. The good place is breaking in, here, now. He goes on: “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” Notice that he says the God of peace will be with you, not might be with you. The truth is that we can see good and bad places in our lives, in our world, and we can speculate and worry if we so choose. We are plenty capable of consigning ourselves to bad places. Ultimately, living our faith is not about us attaining or reaching the “Good Place” where everything is perfect. The future is all in God‘s hands. Ultimately, living our faith is about positioning, listening, and believing that we are always in God’s good hands, and that is a really good place to be. Amen. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorThe Rev. John Thomas is Rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood Archives
October 2024
Categories |
Telephone |
|