Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Jesus lived in two worlds, two "kingdoms," at the same time. He talked about them often. There was "the kingdom of this world," which was beguiling (like the serpent in the Garden of Eden) but which, in truth, was temporary, unreliable and unreal -- and which (at least for the moment) was governed by Satan. And then there was the "Kingdom of God," rock solid, eternal, always was and always will be, invisible, ruled by our Heavenly Father -- from which we (and this whole earthly realm) came, and back to which we will ultimately go. Jesus' "mistake," the way he got himself crucified, was to say that in that other, more permanent, kingdom fortunes will be reversed. Losers will be winners, winners losers!

"How fortunate are the poor," he said, ("Blessed are the poor.") and the hungry, and the sad and the persecuted -- they will receive great rewards in the Kingdom of God. Their bellies will be full and they will laugh forever." But, woe to the rich and famous. They will mourn and weep for an eternity, for they have chosen to receive their rewards in this kingdom. Such teachings were outrageously offensive to those in power, as we might have guessed. Jesus' words made the rich angry and the poor uppity.

Nothing Can Shake Us from being Kingdom People

No one has ever been so much a part of both worlds as Jesus. Never have the two kingdoms touched as they touched in him. Yet all saints (and that includes us), to some extent, must live in two worlds. And it is our strength. It is our courage. I think of Paul writing to those persecuted Christians in Corinth, almost laughing, "Come on. Buck up. What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can tribulation? Distress? Persecution? Famine? Sword? No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." "Nothing can separate us from the love of God ." Can't you hear the non-believers saying, "Get real, Paul!" And Paul would have replied, "I am real. It is you who have lost touch with reality -- you who actually believe that the puny kingdom of this world (where everything is biodegradable) has some kind of ultimate value." Paul got that right from Jesus: "Blessed are ("how fortunate are") the poor, the hungry, the persecuted, those who suffer. How heartless of Jesus! How insensitive! Who would say such things? Who would say that the poor were lucky? Only those who knew of another world. "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ," Paul said, " if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead ." There is another life, another world. And that's the one that counts.

We Need to be Connected to the Main Grid

Ice storms in New England have left many without power for days, and power may not be restored in some areas for many days more! The problem this time is not simply that limbs and trees, heavy with ice, have fallen on neighborhood power lines. That is usual damage, relatively easy to repair. No, this time the great power grid itself has been damaged, those huge towers and heavy transmission lines that cross mountains and span rivers to connect local communities to the sources of power -- these are down.

When we lose contact with the ultimate source of power, local area networks are worthless, no matter how well designed. Much of our effort to improve life, in recent years, looks to me like people striving to fix downed power lines in their local neighborhoods but not bothering to repair the main grid -- the thing which connects them to the outside world, to that other world, where power finds its source -- so we are powerless to redeem and to heal. There is no juice.

I have lived long enough to see enacted at least a hundred well intentioned laws. Laws to take smut and violence off the television and out of the movies, laws to make people treat each other fairly, laws to stop drug abuse, and child abuse, and spousal abuse. Laws to get tough on crime. Laws to give advantages to the disadvantaged. Laws to end divorce. Laws to give food to the hungry. Laws to provide housing for the homeless. And on and on. And I cannot honestly say that this world is one bit better because of all these laws. We have found ways around every prohibition and scammed every good program. We're fixing the local lines. But the power grid is down, and no matter how much we work we can't find the moral energy to do what needs to be done. We cannot make people love each other by talking it up. We have to find the source of love. We cannot institute justice until we make contact with Him who is just. We cannot find peace until we know the Prince of Peace.

 The Kingdom is Threatens Powerful Interests

Jesus confronts people (his disciples, even us today), people who are living almost exclusively in this world's kingdom. His teachings overturn every conventional expectation. It is the stuff of crucifixion and martyrdom. We should not think that Jesus lived the first three years of his ministry in the gentile countryside, sitting on rocks and teaching nice things about birds and flowers, and then went off one day to the big city where powerful people got jealous of his popularity and had him killed. All along, his teachings were incendiary -- still are. He was always on the wrong side of the tracks. If one of us were to walk into Michael Asner's office, say, or up to Michael Jordan or Donald Trump, and say (even if we said it nicely), "Listen. None of us is long for this world, and (in fact) this whole material world hasn't got much life left in it. And when it ends, very soon, and we all get where we're going, rich people like you are going to be dirt poor, and those poor people, down on the street, sleeping under their cardboard blankets -- they will have all the dough. And that's how it will be forever." Don't tell me that wouldn't get us crucified, in one way or another. This world has little tolerance for saints. It doesn't like to be touched by the other world.

Now Jesus, living in this world but with strong power lines to that other world, lived in what way? Did he practice what he preached? To begin with, he was a loser himself, poor and destitute. He required his disciples also to be losers turned away some otherwise well-qualified applicants because they could not accept this. He socialized with the poor, the outcasts, the sinners, saying it was not the well who needed a doctor but the sick. And it was almost exclusively the poor who overturned the world in his name after he died and rose again. The values and priorities of this world were just not operating in him, nor in them. He knew about another world, and so did his followers. And that's where they set their sights.

The Kingdom Comforts the Afflicted and Afflicts the Comfortable

John Wesley, commenting on this "blessed are the poor, woe to the rich" passage in Luke, reminds us that prosperity is, after all, "a sweet poison." Wesley says that these forthright words of Jesus do two things for us: they "reconcile us to adversity" and make us cautious "when the world smiles upon us." Or, to borrow a modern sentence, "They comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Adversity, here, is not just poverty. It includes all human misery. Those who are ill, those who mourn, those who are lonely, those who are afraid. "How fortunate these people are," Jesus said. They would "jump for joy", if they could see their heavenly reward. But the big shots? They will not be as happy in heaven as they have been on earth. It's the same lesson he taught, I suspect, every day of his life: He who laughs last, laughs best!