Unity Lutheran Church + Chicago
follow us
  • Welcome
  • Who Are We
    • Eternal Flame Saints
    • History of Unity
    • Affiliated with
    • Welcome & Vision Statement
    • Constitution & Bylaws
  • Our Faith in Action
    • Concerts at Unity
    • Green Space
    • Social Justice
  • Space Sharing
    • Calendar
    • Picture our Rooms
    • Space Sharing Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
    • Offerings & Gifts >
      • Unity Special Funds
  • Community Resources

Sermon by Rev. Fred Kinsey, "Which People?"

10/6/2017

0 Comments

 
Readings for October 1, 2017, the 17th Sunday after Pentecost
  • Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 and Psalm 25:1-9  
  • Philippians 2:1-13  
  • Matthew 21:23-32

"Which People?" by Pastor Kinsey
During the lull of summer TV programming, Kim and I decided to start watching, The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which swept the Emmy’s this year, winning 9 awards, more than any other show. 
 
I can’t give you a full accounting of it, because we’re just 6 episodes into the 10 total shows.  But, of course, everyone knows what the verdict was.  Unfortunately, the jury is still out on “The People”.  The American people are still split on the verdict, just as much as O.J. is a man of two worlds, and the key players in the whole affair – like lawyers, Johnny Cockran, Marcia Clark, and the host of others – are full of contradictions, both virtuous and contemptable.
 
If you weren’t there for the real thing in 1994-5, you probably still know something about what a media circus it was.  In terms of viewing audience, it lived up to its moniker, ‘Trial of the Century.’  Normal broadcasting was just cancelled, to air the court proceedings which had allowed live cameras into the LA courtroom.  Judge Ito, the lawyers, the detectives, and witnesses, all became famous whether they wanted to or not.  The camera’s eye – which for decades had allowed all of America to become voyeurs in their own living rooms, through regular TV drama’s, soaps, sports, and news – now extended its reach, to enable us to become consumers of a real time drama, based on a former football star, the Juice.  Did he do it, or was he set up?  Does the bloody glove fit, or was it planted by a racist cop?  Is Marcia Clark the smartest woman lawyer ever, or a dowdy disgrace to her gender? 
 
Questions like these – most of them beside the point – baited America, becoming the red meat, served and swallowed.  The spectacle gathered us in unison, only to polarize us.  I remember watching it like a guilty pleasure.  Horrified at myself for not turning it off!
 
And as Kim and I watched the remake, episode 6, a few nights ago, she suddenly cried out : this was a Reality Show – before we even had reality shows!  Now I get it!  This is how we got to The Apprentice, and the long bizarre Presidential Primaries! 
 
You probably already figured that out, long ago.  But Kim and I never watched any Apprentice, or Lost, or even Dancing with the Stars – well, except once or twice with my mom! 
 
But I think, it’s true, the original trial could be seen as the first Reality Show, long before the genre was ever even created.  Whereas, The People vs. O.J. Simpson, from last year, is a reflection of us, The People, a severely conflicted America, one the Kerner Commission back in 1968 called, A Nation Moving Toward Two Societies – Separate and Unequal. 
 
But not only is the legacy of Racism in America unresolved – now on top of it, we have a Press Corp that has gone star-struck, because the media has been bought out by corporate elites with a money-ed agenda, that lives by ratings, first and foremost – by the spectacle of “what bleeds, leads,” and therefore, has largely relinquished its First Amendment task of protecting the truth, and allowing citizens to be properly informed, to better participate in a fair and democratic society.  Our news media itself, has become saturated with star studded celebrities, and have fallen victim to those who create Reality Shows – and let’s face it, want to now create reality itself, new fake realities, out of whole cloth! 
 
To the extent that they want to create a new world “out of nothing,” they are the epitome of vanity, aiming, with ingratiating charm, to take the place of the Creator in Genesis, in our hearts and minds! 
 
And this is the kind of unholy ‘authority and power’ that Jesus confronts, in these waning chapters of Matthew.  It is here, in chapter 21, that Matthew begins a series of 5 challenges to Jesus as the Messiah.  And it all begins when Jesus deliberately comes to Jerusalem – the most visible public space, and seat of Roman power, and the temple elites who collude with them – to meet them head on.  Not passively, but with his brand of active non-violence, for all to witness. 
 
Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, instead of a steed; a humble Messiah, with a parade of people – including his 12 disciples and women followers, the tax collectors and the prostitutes, the blind and the lame, and the families come for Passover with their children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”  And then, overturning the tables, Jesus disrupts the business of animal sacrifice, and calls for a temple of prayer and praise.
 
Then he stayed the night at Bethany.  But “When Jesus entered the temple,” the next day, our gospel reading begins, “the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you the authority?’” 
 
It’s, Jesus vs. the Temple Elites: Jerusalem Crime Story!  And the question is: Who has the exousia, that is, the ‘authority’ or ‘power,’ to define what the Temple will be?  Who will the people follow?  Jesus, or the Temple Elites? 
 
The keepers of the Temple have carefully guarded their religious and institutional power, to be able to continue to hold on to their authority – deadening their spiritual life, however, through a deadly compromise with the occupying Roman rulers. 
 
And that’s what Jesus challenges, in return.  Let me ask you this, Jesus says, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”  Either way they answer, they lose, because everyone knows they didn’t believe in John’s authority and power.  But the many people who followed Jesus, held John the Baptist in high regard. 
 
You are like the Parable of 2 Sons, Jesus tells them.  A man had two sons and told the first to go and work in his vineyard – who grumbles about it, and mumbled a weak, No.  But later he changed his mind and did go to work.  In the mean time, the parent went to the other son, who was listening on his ear-buds, and told him the same, and the 2nd son nodded his head yes, to his father, but never went! 
 
And the Jerusalem elders choose correctly, for which of the two kids did the right thing - the first.  Exactly, Jesus says to them, which is my point about you!  Even the sinners and outcasts, who turned around and got baptized by John, and followed me, have been welcomed into the kingdom of God before you, because you have not given up your corrupted privilege and unholy power. 
 
And so, we have a choice, each and every day: to be the people of God, or, the People vs. OJ Simpson!  We have a choice to live out our baptismal calling, or follow a false authority and power.  The choice itself, does not make us righteous or saved.  It only makes us part of, ‘the recovery movement,’ you could say – part of those who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and who actually turn around to follow the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”  It makes us more like the first child, who reacted belligerently, but repented and did go to work in the Vineyard, the kingdom of heaven, and not like the 2nd child who stayed home to watch the Reality Show of guilty pleasures, based on false promises,
 
Jesus came, “in the form of God,” as St. Paul said, and did not exploit it for his own gain, but self-limited his own power, in order to share it with those who had little or none. 
 
Jesus derives his exousia, his authority and power, from God.  Even early on in Matthew, after his Sermon on the Mount, the crowds of people were “astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having exousia, having authority, and not as their [elites].”
 
Jesus overcomes the contradictions of our human life, and opens a way for us to become, more free, and more fully human, as God intends. 
 
And so, let us go joyfully into the Vineyard, as Christ’s workers.  Let us become the People who choose to follow, “the way, the truth, and the life” that brings pleasure, without guilt, beyond polarization – The true ‘authority’ and ‘power’ of our world and our lives. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly