A Revolution from Above
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Our current age is without doubt one of transformation and revolution. It is driven by populism. It is enabled through social media. It is manipulated by ideology. It is crafted in many places. And, we have all seen over the last few months something quite dramatic and revolutionary taking place, particularly along the shores of North Africa. We have witnessed regime change in Egypt, in Tunisia, and in Libya. It is hard for us to believe, but there may even be possibly emerging changes in Syria. Mubarak is now gone. Gaddafi is now gone. Assad may be going.
Twelve months ago, we would have gathered in this place realizing that there were despots ruling those lands, and it is inconceivable even to the most optimistic or even for the most liberally minded that we would have observed the changes that we have seen over the last few months. Right here, in our city and in other cities throughout the world, we observe the “Occupy” movement, a collection of the disenfranchised, the discontented, those who have seen the rise of many people into positions of wealth and the fall of people who have lost their jobs. They have observed something and there is spirited work within them and they name it. We are living in a time of transformation.
There are those who suggest that this is quite predictable. In fact, James Chowning Davies, the great political philosopher, once described times like ours as the “J Curve” of revolution. It is the belief that people had expectations and they had wealth and they had power, only to find that was going into a time of depravity, a time of loss, a time of poverty, and it sows the seeds for the long line in the “J”, the revolutionary curve, where people will not take the fact that they are disadvantaged anymore.
It is a theory that has proven itself over time, it has manifested itself in various historical models, but what is fascinating about the J curve of revolution is that it is not just those who are affluent and are now disaffected that cause the rise, but those who have been disaffected for many years join them. James Chowing Davies suggests that this curve, this revolutionary curve, is something that occurs at various times and places throughout history.
What is remarkable about our current era is that we are seeing it in disparate places and in different countries, and it is a social movement that is a phenomenon. Of course, there are some who feel that this revolutionary transformational movement is actually a dark and a turbid thing. In an op-ed piece in The New York Times a few weeks ago, Thomas Freidman wrote an article suggesting that there are in fact two approaches to these transformations.
For the one who looks at it negatively, it has been coined “The Great Disruption.” Paul Gilding is the one who coined this phrase and he suggests that people have woken up and realized the Emperor has no clothes. In other words, those who have been in positions of power and tyranny are actually found out for what they are, and that they do not have the power to sustain themselves. He argues, quite cogently, that unless that is replaced with something positive, something reconciliatory, something that is going to create wealth and share it, then it is just a great disruption, and nothing more.
Others have suggested that this is a positive thing. John Hagen III, former chairman of Deloitte New Zealand suggests that in fact that this is the time of what he calls “the Big Shift” and that there is a movement taking place because of the phenomenon of social media. This “Big Shift” will not be stopped; it is a permanent thing. In fact, it might even move further, and the world has to come to terms with the fact that people can communicate and contact one another across all borders, and can learn of democracy and freedom even in places that have tried to suppress it, as in places of tyranny.
He says this “Big Shift” is something that the world cannot resist, but needs to embrace and to understand, again arguing that it needs to be used in a creative way, and on that both Gilding and Hagen agree. This is a fascinating analysis of where we are in the world. There are many people who feel sort of disaffected or disquieted or uncertain. There are things like the Occupy Movement that shake us from our complacency. There are movements abroad that let us know that powers are temporary and they shake us to our foundation.
There was a revolution two thousand years ago that I think is a revolution that we need to take seriously. Not only do we need to take it seriously, we need to let it be known in this era and in this time. It is the revolution of Christ. Whereas the revolutions that we find right now are occurring from below, from the masses, from the people rising up against power and tyranny, the revolution of Christ was a revolution from above.
I know that all language about “above” and “below” is metaphorical, it is not literal language, but it helps us to understand what has taken place. The revolution that I am talking about started from above because it was God's initiative. God saw that there was something wrong with his creation, and he desired to right it.
God from above saw what was happening below: sin, oppression, idolatry, subjugation, and so God from above comes below. He comes below in the form of his Son, and from his Son, works in the world so that through his life, his ministry, his teachings, his purposes, and through his healings, he restores that which is broken.
This very same Jesus who came and shared in the humanity and the brokenness of the world, went even further: he bore a cross. He was “below below.” He was in the very dark places of death and sin and lifelessness. From below, the Son was at work. From below, God was redeeming the world.
Then, as a result of God's grace, God raised this very Jesus above all earthly powers, all kingdoms, all reigns, and placed everything under his feet, as articulated in today's passage: “All things were placed under his feet.” He was given a name, look at the language: “above all other names.” He was given a position of pre-eminence above, drawing humanity in all its brokenness and tenderness and wretchedness, restoring it into the presence of God above. Then he called the people by name to follow him and to work below, to proclaim him and the revolution he brought about, to bear witness to it, to live it, to enact it. It was the revolution of grace.
You can see this manifested in the creeds that we often recite in the United Church: he came to “reconcile and to make new.” Even in the wonderful Apostles' Creed it says, “On the third day he rose again, he ascended into heaven, is seated on the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead.” The Christian revolution!
It was also a revolution of hope. Part of the problem with the revolutions of today is that they have been born in the cauldron of despair. They are a response to that which is broken, and they are born sometimes out of fear and out of anger. The Christian Revolution is born out of hope. In this magnificent passage from Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is writing a prayer of thanksgiving, a doxology, and praise. He is thanking God for what God has done and what God is doing in the Church.
It is recognized the Book of Ephesians was a universal letter, a Catholic letter, which means universal. It was shared not only with the Ephesians, it was shared all over the world to all the fledgling churches. Written later than many of the other books, it was Paul's swan song to many of the churches that he loved so much, and in their fear, and there was fear, and in their persecution, and there was persecution, and in their uncertainty about this new revolution to which they belonged, Paul gave them hope.
When the Emperor had all power, when idols were everywhere, when there were those who were suffering for their faith, what does Paul do? He affirms the Revolution of Christ that all powers and principalities, all spiritual forces, all things are subject to Christ! His name is above all the names of all the powers trying to hold the world. It was of hope, and Paul knew it was of hope, and Paul knew that these words of hope would give comfort to the wretched and the despised.
He knew it would give hope to the poor and the disenfranchised. He knew it would give hope to the broken and the sinful, and those seeking greater righteousness. He knew it would encourage them to rise above their current situation in the knowledge that Christ has already risen above them for them. That was the hope of the Revolution of Christ. It was also a revolution that had as its body the Church.
This last week, I went to the 100th anniversary of the chapel at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. I was invited to participate in the events of the day and it was a fascinating time. Before there was the great worship service, where Leonard Griffith preached so marvellously, or before the Sacrament of the Eucharist, or before the great procession involving the Bishops, above all those things, there was one moment that touched me deeply.
It was when a former Principal gave an account, just a paragraph at a time, of all those members of the college who had died in the year before. We do that in some ways at our Annual Meeting here, but he spent some time talking about them: about their ministries and their lives, their accomplishments, their successes, their challenges. One-by-one, he went through some of the graduates who had become Bishops and Archbishops and some who had served as rural pastors spread across our land. No matter, they were all treated with the same dignity, the same equality, the same kindness.
I didn't know any of them. I had never met one of them, and yet I was touched. Why? It was because of the recognition in that of the “Ministry of the Saints.” Paul uses that very phrase in the Book of Ephesians. He talks about the saints throughout the world, not just those who had gone and passed on, but those who are serving Christ here in the world every day. Whether it is in Thessalonica or Philippi or Jerusalem or Ephesus or Rome, they are saints: those who proclaim the word of the Revolution of God in Jesus Christ.
William Barclay gives a wonderful illustration of what the Church should be in the light of this great text. He says, “I want you to think for a moment of a doctor who has discovered a cure to cancer, a solution even to one form of cancer. That doctor might have that cure, but unless that doctor shares it with others, and then others are willing to teach it to successive practitioners, then the discovery itself simply remains an isolated unit, a moment in time, a discovery in the mind rather than as a healing presence in the world.” He said that the Church is like that. The revolution has been done by Jesus Christ, as the Book of Ephesians says “once and for all,” for all: restored, renewed, recreated, forgiven, redeemed.
It is up to those of us who believe in it, to proclaim it. And I think this is one of the great needs of our time, and one of the great causes of the Christian church. One of the things that I find is sometimes missed in the world, with all its struggles and all its movements, is a sense of purpose. You see, the Christian faith is a faith that has at its core solidarity. Now, I know solidarity is a political word. It really came into vogue in the 1980s in Poland, but even before then, the notion of solidarity implied that people who had a common belief would put it into a common action. They would have a common affection and they would proclaim it.
If I was to say something to the Occupy Movement this morning, I would say this: if you are going to resist, if you are going to speak out against an ill that you see, do not do it in a purely disparate way, like it is a menu in a restaurant where people pick the things for which they are disaffected. Instead, have a common purpose, a common idea, and the way you present it is as important as the message itself.
This often gets lost by people. Marshal McLuhan was right! “The medium is the message.” The way you proclaim something, proclaims the very message itself. There needs to be a common idea, a common desire of what needs to be achieved, and if it is a lofty idea, then let it be a lofty idea, but the way that you proclaim it matters as much as the message itself.
In the Book of Ephesians, Paul is writing to this new disorganized, disparate group of churches throughout the world and he says the: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called: one Lord, one faith, one baptism one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
That is the message that the Christian church proclaims. That is the kind of solidarity that Christians need.
In a world that often seems like it is breaking apart, it is a message that we need to live, it is a message that we need to embody, and it is a message that we need to proclaim, because in a disparate world, many powers come and go and have their day, but in the Christian Revolution, it is God through Christ who has placed all things under his feet.
All of this is based on one great thing, namely that ultimately it is God who has been in solidarity with us. It is not about us always being in solidarity with God. We are sinful human beings, we make mistakes, but it is God's solidarity with us. Therein is the power of the revolution from above.
Bob Webber, who many years ago was the head of Kiwanis worldwide and the President of Kiwanis Worldwide in 1969 and 1970, once told a true story that has gone around the world a number of times, but is worth repeating. It was when late one evening he went to visit one of the members of Kiwanis at his farmhouse. He sat down on the front porch for it was a hot night and a boy came cycling up the driveway and stopped in front of the porch. He laid down his bike and came to the door. He was the paper boy delivering the evening paper and collecting.
Bob Webber observed that the farmer and the young boy had a conversation. The young boy began by saying, “I hear, sir, that you have some puppies for sale?”
The farmer said, “Yes, I do, but these puppies are very expensive. They are $25 each.” (That was forty years ago, just so you remember, right?)
The young boy said, “I'd love a puppy. Can I see the puppies?”
The farmer said, “Okay, you can see the puppies, but I don't think you can afford the puppies.”
He whistled, and sure enough the mother of the puppies came running around the corner of the farm, followed by a group of bouncing, bubbling, shovey little puppies. The young boy embraced them all and hugged them and they licked him. He was in awe. Then, he said, “Is there any way I can get one of these puppies?”
The farmer said, “I don't think so, son. I think that they are too expensive.”
Then, all of a sudden, around the corner from behind the barn came one last puppy, but he was limping very badly, and he couldn't run and keep up with the others. The young boy looked at that puppy and said, “Can I have that puppy?”
The farmer said, “You do know that this puppy is lame. He was only born with one hip joint, and his other leg is frozen. He will never be able to run properly.”
The young boy said, “Look, I will give you 25 cents for him, and I will pay you 25 cents every week until I have paid it off.”
The farmer said, “Why? Why would you want that puppy?”
The boy looked at his pant leg and as he did so he revealed a brace with leather and wood and metal and said, “I want that dog because he will know all his life that I understand how he feels.”
The Christian Revolution is a revolution from above but it is a revolution that came below. It is a revolution that came into that broken and despicable world. It came to the disjointed and the disaffected. It came to the humble. It came to the sinful and the outcast. It came to the arrogant and the proud. And God said, “In my revolution, here is my Son. He knows exactly how you feel. He restores and he makes new from below but he will also draw you up so you may be above. That you will have all hope, that you will have all peace, that you will have all forgiveness, that you will have all in all from above, because of the revolution of my Son.” Amen.