Proclamation

Proclamation June 7 (Acts 2) I can recall clearly a few of the subtleties of game-playing on the school playground. Say that on a given recess time the game of choice of was jungle-gym tag. Someone would yell, Last one up is ‘it’, and so we would all scurry up whether it was going the wrong way up a slide, scaling a rope ladder or clamoring for the steps. Then one of us would begin in pursuit of the rest. Then as it seemed to often happen someone would call out some random rule change like, anyone who touches the grass is ‘it’, and so anyone touching grass would quickly hop onto some patch of gravel or climb up on some piece of equipment and the dynamics of the game would shift. It would be as though we would suddenly break into a game of tag here in the sanctuary (hmmmm) and after we had been running around for awhile someone would call out, anyone who touches carpet is ‘it’. There were certain kids who had the influence to change the rules of the game. When Chantal and I were still dating we were visiting my family one night and began a game of Monopoly. As I suspect many of you can also attest to the fact that Monopoly can become pretty heated at times. I think I still have a slight scar on my inside lip from having dice hurled at me as a kid. So as we began to play I noticed that Chantal did not quite fit into our way of playing. Where many of us would relish and take great pleasure in making someone pay for landing on our property Chantal instead would be sympathetic telling someone that they could pay later or even just not to worry about it. Well, this changed everything. How could this game work if people did not strictly enforce the basic premise of the game which is to form a monopoly of wealth? There are some of us who can change the rules of the game and there are others who change the game by how they play. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story A Good Man is Hard to Find we encounter a typically self-involved family traveling by car for a vacation. Early in the story there is foreshadowing of an escaped convict who may be passing through in the same vicinity as their own travels. At one point we find out that the grandmother had snuck a cat along in the car and when it is literally out-of-the-bad it creates confusion and the car veers off the road throwing some its passengers out the door. As the family began to regroup a black car pulled up and three men with guns stepped out. Two of the men took the father and son into a near-by wood where after a time shots could be heard. The remaining family members a grandmother, mother and daughter remained with the escaped convict who was called The Misfit. They began to talk and the grandmother tried in her own way to convince The Misfit that he was not a bad man and that he would not shoot a lady. After awhile the other two came out and took the mother and daughter into the woods where again in time shots could be heard. The Misfit and grandmother continued talking. In time the grandmother simply pleaded with The Misfit that he should pray. It was never too late to start praying. She began loosing her voice and simply started repeating the name Jesus over and over again. Finally the Misfit responded, “Yes’m Jesus thrown everything off balance. . . . Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead and he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if he didn’t then its nothing for you to do but enjoy a few minutes you got left the best way

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you can – by killing somebody or burning down his house or some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness. . . . I wisht I had of been there. It ain’t right I wasn’t there because if I had been there I would have known. . . . If I had been there I would have known and I wouldn’t be like I am right now.” The Misfit, who chose his name because he could never fully fit what he had done wrong with the punishment he received, understood perfectly well that with Jesus and with the resurrection of the dead the game had been fundamentally changed. Perhaps we could even say that a new game had begun. That Jesus was raised from the dead hung over his head as fundamental cross-road in how life was to be lived. If he could somehow know that it was true then all that was left would be to drop everything and follow him. But if it was not true then life consists in burning down the house of your neighbour because all returns to dust anyway and that is the end of things. And isn’t that what is fundamental to the rules of most of our games today? This was true already on the playground where I was as a child. An audible change in the rules was often done by someone popular enough that the other kids would listen obediently. And conveniently this tended to happen just in time to get themselves out of trouble. And so just when they were about to be caught they suddenly changed the rules and some other poor soul would be ‘it.’ This is the basic premise for every reality show on TV. The entire game is structured around having only one house left standing while the others were burned down. We are learning more and more that our model and practice of consumerism in the West is often the cause of figurative or even literal burning of resources for others around the world. And we know in our own hearts how easy it is for us to begin thinking of how our neighbours house could burn instead of how it could be built. The Misfit saw that in Jesus the game was fundamentally changed and this change was a matter of life and death. The early Church also recognized this change and the resurrection became a centerpiece in its proclamation. For us the resurrection takes its meaning in a highly figurative manner. One’s life can said to be resurrected if they come back from something like a devastating addiction or illness. The scandal of this term for the early church was not in its figurative use. It was also not entirely scandalous as a concept though many Jews and Greeks denied a physical resurrection. There were already many Jewish groups that developed the belief that God would physically restore the Jewish people at the time that God would also restore the created order. This was indeed unnerving for those in power such as the priestly ruling class and the Romans. A physical resurrection meant that those currently in power could never fully control the rules of the game. These powers could never fully control the minds and bodies of the people they governed. Jesus seems allude to this when he said, “Friends do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.” The death of your earthly body is not the end. A deep an abiding scandal in the church’s proclamation, a scandal whose edge is just as sharp today if we are able to encounter it, is that the resurrection has begun. The resurrection, the physical, spiritual and final triumph over the powers of the world and of death, has begun in the person of Jesus. The restoration of the world is in the motion. News of the resurrection spreads and the early witnesses and believers gather. On Pentecost that was marked on the liturgical calendar last week the Holy Spirit was poured out so that this message of the resurrected one would be made known. And what is the

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response to the message of the resurrection? Repent, be baptized, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. We have heard these sorts of words from all sorts of people and groups some of whose motivations and intents we may have questioned. Perhaps we need to rephrase this language in terms of the playground. Know that you are part of a game where you cannot win. Someone else is pulling the strings and calling the shots. Just when you think you are safe the rules will change and they will not favour you. And what is worse if you stay in this game you will conform to it. As The Misfit recognized the only real pleasure will come in your ability to do harm to others and even that will be no pleasure. It is hard because the game promises victors, champions and heroes but more often than not it and ultimately it produces losers and an abiding feeling of failure. The game is fixed, save yourself from this corrupted game. This morning we acknowledge the twelve year olds in our congregation. We acknowledge and give thanks that they are growing in wisdom. We are bearers of a message that we hope they are already hearing and that they will continue to live in to. Are we committed to telling our children of the games that are played all around us? Will we tell will them of the times we hurt others and of the times we were hurt by the game? And do we carry with us a message of one who changed everything? Save yourself from this corrupt and corrupting game. We do not need to fear its losses because there is someone who has already overcome anything this game could throw at us. Jesus has indeed thrown everything off balance. Adults, youth and children gather together so that we might be formed in a faith that has nothing to fear. May we scatter as people marked by a message of courage, humility, peace and an ever growing wisdom. Scatter into your homes and lives practicing resurrection in your ability to change the game by God’s Spirit. Do this and you will be proclaiming the Gospel. Amen.

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