John 21:1-25; Romans 8:31-39

I was a gymnast when I was growing up. I spent a considerable amount of time each week with a group of other girls and coaches in a gym practicing routines, learning new skills, and drilling basics. Other than school, gymnastics was my life. By the time I left the sport, I had been competing for years, spending 16-20 hours a week in the gym. Then, when I was 16, I was done, and I had to figure out what my life looked like now. What should I do with my time now? The life that I had known, the familiar routines, were gone, and I had to figure out how my time and energy would be spent now.

This week is the first Sunday after Easter, and we find the disciples in much the same place. Last Friday, we mourned. Friday brought grief and fear. Then, on Easter morning, the grief was wiped away. Jesus wasn’t dead, like we thought. He is risen; he’s alive. But he is no longer present in our midst, and we aren’t quite sure what life looks like now for us. What do we do now that we aren’t following Jesus throughout the countryside, watching him perform miracles and listening to his teaching? A week after Easter, we are in the place of the first disciples. What does life look like with a risen Jesus?

Read with me John 21:1-14.

¹ Después de esto Jesús se apareció de nuevo a sus discípulos, junto al lago de Tiberíades.^[a] Sucedió de esta manera:² Estaban juntos Simón Pedro, Tomás (al que apodaban el Gemelo^[b]), Natanael, el de Caná de Galilea, los hijos de Zebedeo, y otros dos discípulos.
³ —Me voy a pescar —dijo Simón Pedro.

—Nos vamos contigo —contestaron ellos.

Salieron, pues, de allí y se embarcaron, pero esa noche no pescaron nada.
⁴ Al despuntar el alba Jesús se hizo presente en la orilla, pero los discípulos no se dieron cuenta de que era él.
⁵ —Muchachos, ¿no tienen algo de comer? —les preguntó Jesús.

—No —respondieron ellos.
⁶ —Tiren la red a la derecha de la barca, y pescarán algo.

Así lo hicieron, y era tal la cantidad de pescados que ya no podían sacar la red.
⁷ —¡Es el Señor! —dijo a Pedro el discípulo a quien Jesús amaba.

Tan pronto como Simón Pedro le oyó decir: «Es el Señor», se puso la ropa, pues estaba semidesnudo, y se tiró al agua.⁸ Los otros discípulos lo siguieron en la barca, arrastrando la red llena de pescados, pues estaban a escasos cien metros^[c] de la orilla.⁹ Al desembarcar, vieron unas brasas con un pescado encima, y un pan.
¹⁰ —Traigan algunos de los pescados que acaban de sacar —les dijo Jesús.
¹¹ Simón Pedro subió a bordo y arrastró hasta la orilla la red, la cual estaba llena de pescados de buen tamaño. Eran ciento cincuenta y tres, pero a pesar de ser tantos la red no se rompió.
¹² —Vengan a desayunar —les dijo Jesús.

Ninguno de los discípulos se atrevía a preguntarle: «¿Quién eres tú?», porque sabían que era el Señor.¹³ Jesús se acercó, tomó el pan y se lo dio a ellos, e hizo lo mismo con el pescado.¹⁴ Ésta fue la tercera vez que Jesús se apareció a sus discípulos después de haber *resucitado.

The disciples are gathered, knowing that Jesus has risen, but probably still a little lost as to what his resurrection means for them. They had left everything to follow Jesus, and now the disciples don’t have a teacher to follow throughout Palestine. They are a little aimless, but it is in their aimlessness that Jesus reveals himself to them. They are waiting in Galilee, and Peter decides to go fishing.

And it is at the end of a long and disappointing night that Jesus chooses to reveal himself. The disciples have toiled all night to catch fish, and they have gained nothing. At daybreak, “Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, ‘Lads, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No.’ They replied. He said, throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. The disciples get more than they bargained for when they drop that net. They have a net bursting with fish. And the Beloved Disciple gets it. He exclaims, “It is the Lord!” The Beloved Disciple has the eyes to see Jesus even through his loss, toil, and disappointment. He offers a testimony to what he sees, telling the others that Jesus is standing on the shore, and as a result, leading them to Jesus.

It is here, in the midst of the disciples’ uncertainty, that Jesus shows them what it means for them to live after the resurrection. Jesus promises the disciples that he will reveal himself to others. Peter hauls in a net full of fish, is asked if he loves Jesus more than he loves fishing, and he gets told to care for God’s sheep instead of those fish. Jesus has called Peter to be a fisher of people, and the catch is large. That morning Jesus brought fish up to the boat, but the disciples had to follow his instructions to cast in their net and then work to bring the fish to Jesus on the shore. Jesus works through the disciples, and the disciples follow Jesus. And they see a huge blessing, a huge harvest coming out of a night of disappointment.

Living in the resurrection means following the instructions of Jesus. The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus standing on the shore, but they followed his instructions anyway. When Jesus told them to throw their nets back into the water, they obeyed, and their obedience allowed them to see Jesus perform a miracle and reveal his presence on the shore. Sometimes we don’t recognize Jesus around us. Life is chaotic, difficult, busy, and sometimes discouraging. We can lose sight of Jesus and not realize that he’s standing right before us. But, he has given us his teachings, and we are to obey them, even when we can’t see God. We love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we love our neighbors as ourselves. We care for the broken and discouraged. Then, we see Jesus work miracles in our day too, in the lives of those around us and in our own lives. For the disciples, Resurrection life is a life of obedience and seeing Jesus revealed to us.

Resurrection life is also a life of proclaiming Jesus’ presence when our eyes are opened to him standing before us. For the Beloved Disciple, resurrection life means exclaiming, “It is the Lord!” when the nets fill with fish. Not all of the disciples had the eyes to see Jesus standing on the shore. They were astounded by the catch of fish, but the miracle wasn’t enough for them to catch on. For the Beloved Disciple it was, and his job was to proclaim to others what had been revealed to him. That’s our job too, in the resurrection life. It is our job to proclaim God’s presence when he shows himself to us, so we can help others recognize God in their midst as well.

Finally, Resurrection Life is inviting outsiders into our midst. The disciples gather on the shore for the third “communion” meal in John’s gospel. But this isn’t the communion meal from the upper room, enclosed from the community by walls and locked doors. This communion meal is out in the open, surrounded by outsiders, and it includes an expectation that the disciples will serve those outside, drawing in that huge catch of fish. They have food enough for everyone present, and Peter is told just after this to feed Jesus’ lambs. The disciples are to go to others.

We see here the communion meal of a church that is continually going outside its own walls because they realize that Jesus cannot be kept inside those walls. They have seen Jesus walk right through the walls to meet them inside, and now they have seen Jesus leave those walls behind to meet them on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is already out in the community, and just as he drew the fish to the boat, he draws people to himself so that Peter (and the other disciples too) can feed his sheep.

Resurrection Life means that we are to take the communion meal out into the world, surrounded by people who are not normally part of our community, and we are expected to serve out in the open. We are seeing, again, that Jesus can’t be kept locked inside walls, either the literal walls of our churches and homes, or the invisible walls of our communities and hearts. Jesus is going out into the neighborhoods, calling people to himself, and waiting for us to proclaim that “It is the Lord” to those who cannot recognize him.

Let us take communion here this morning, as a community that lives the Resurrection Life, obeying Jesus’ teachings, proclaiming his presence, and then taking his communion and his love out into all the world, loving those Jesus already loves. Amen.

Baptized into the Work of Christ

Jesus, as we remember your baptism this morning and reflect on your work in this world, guide us into our place in your redemption of the world. Amen.

This morning is the day in the church calendar when we remember the baptism of Jesus. We began the liturgical year of the church back in November, with the first Sunday of Advent being the first Sunday of the new Christian year. And it is appropriate that we begin the Christian year with the birth of Christ and the beginning of his life. Without the incarnation, without God taking the first steps to come down to earth and meet us in our stubbornness, our brokenness, and our restlessness, we wouldn’t have a Christian year to begin. The birth God in our world changed everything.

But there are other days and events in the Christian calendar that changed everything as well. This morning, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus and the beginning of his public ministry, the day when he is first revealed to those around him as the Son of God. Another day that changed everything. The first act of Jesus was to leave Galilee, travel to the Jordan River where John was baptizing people, and be baptized himself.

Let’s read together Matthew 3, beginning in verse 13.

The Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Answering, Jesus said, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteous action.” Then John consented.

Having been baptized, Jesus immediately came up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my son, the beloved one, with him I am well pleased.”

This is an interesting first act of Jesus. He could have done anything, gone over to the temple to talk with the leaders of his day, begin teaching in the desert himself, or challenge the political rulers. He did none of those things. Instead, Jesus leaves Nazareth, walks south past the sea of Galilee out to meet John, who is making quite a stir of his own in the desert, baptizing people for the repentance of their sins and challenging them to live holy lives in anticipation of Christ’s coming into their lives.

And John has more than a few hesitations about baptizing Christ. Just before this, John has promised that one will come after him “who is more powerful than [John], whose sandals [he is] not worthy to carry.” This one “will baptize…with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” The moment Jesus arrives at the river, John seems to know that Jesus is this one who comes to bring justice on the earth. Who is he to baptize the chosen one of God?

I can only imagine what John felt like, but I remember back to a time in seminary when I was in a class, studying the book of John. It’s a memory that normally comes up in Lent, around the time of Easter, but as I thought of John’s reaction to Jesus’ request for baptism, I couldn’t help but think of this story here too. It was close to the end of the semester, and we had been studying the gospel of John together for several months. The professor was very deliberate in his teaching, bringing a candle to class and turning off the lights as we read the Scripture, so that we would have a better understanding of the first readers of John, hiding because of persecution. We left the classroom to read in locations that would evoke images of the events in the gospel. But the day that really stands out in my mind is the day we studied Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Our professor removed his suit jacket, poured water into a basin, gathered a towel, and one by one, knelt at each student’s feet, washing them carefully and then praying over each student. I vividly remember understanding how Peter felt that day, as I thought that this tenured Duke professor, at the top of his field of study, had very little place kneeling on the floor to wash my feet. I should be washing his instead.

This morning, I imagine that John felt very similar as Jesus came to him for baptism. Here was God’s anointed, standing before him, submitting himself to John for baptism, because it was necessary for the righteous action of God to be fulfilled. John knew that he was called to live in submission to Jesus, to glorify and prepare the way for this man standing in front of him. How could he possibly be the one to baptize Jesus?

Yet, Jesus convinces John that this baptism is necessary. Can you imagine his response when Jesus comes up from the water? If he had ANY doubts that Jesus was the one he was proclaiming, they would have been instantly squashed upon seeing the heavens open up and the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and upon hearing the voice from the heavens proclaim that Jesus is God’s Son. He must have wondered how in the world he had been chosen to baptize Jesus.

As I think of John, and consider his hesitation, I am struck by Jesus’ steadfast knowledge of what was necessary. When John hesitates, Jesus reassures him that it is right for Jesus to be baptized by John. Jesus says, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteous action.” John consents, and we are left with a puzzle and a clue. Why is it that Jesus needs to be baptized? If John is baptizing for repentance, and Jesus is sinless, why does he need to repent? Jesus comes to fulfill the law, but the law doesn’t require baptism. What righteous action needs to be fulfilled?

As I pondered over this question, wondering why Jesus came to be baptized in the first place, I suddenly realized that Jesus’ response to John also raises an answer to the question that it provokes. Jesus doesn’t tell John that he needs to repent, that he had sins to confess, or that he is worried he will be cut off from the Father. His answer is not about himself. Instead, his answer is about what is necessary, about what it is right for God himself to do. He is fulfilling the right action of God, the action of taking upon himself the history of humanity and redeeming it all in himself. The right action of defeating the powers that have bound his children since the fall. Jesus is fulfilling the redemption of his people, accomplishing the task set before him by the Father.

As we read the prophets, we can’t help but see Jesus written across the pages of their words. In chapter 42, Isaiah declares:

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.

This is what God the LORD says – he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I the LORD have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.

If there is any doubt that the prophet is speaking of Christ, we need only turn to Jesus’ own words for affirmation. In the synagogue, Jesus took the scroll of Isaiah, and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” When John’s followers come to Jesus asking, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus tells them, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

Jesus is called by the Father and sent out into the world for a specific purpose. Repeatedly, God shows Isaiah that Jesus, the one on whom God’s Spirit rests, will establish justice on the earth. And when Jesus has been sent out, the Lord promises that he will make Jesus a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to (and this should sound familiar) “open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” For a people who understand captivity, for a people who are bound in sin, and who so often fail to see that there is bright light shining all around us, this is truly Good News. God has come, and taken it upon himself to deliver and redeem creation.

But this morning, as we remember the baptism of Christ, let us not think for a moment that the work of God in the world lets us off the hook and frees us of any responsibility. We have been called by the Father in the name of the Son and the power of the Spirit, to be sent out by the Father for the work of God. Paul reminds us that “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body” (1 Cor). Christ is “the head of the body, the church” (Col 1:18) and our lives “are now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3) because “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death[.] We were…buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life...” and we will “be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom 6: 3-5).

Because we live in Christ, because we are part of his body, we are called and sent to continue the work that Christ began, as we live and act in the power of the Holy Spirit. That can be a frightening prospect, considering that Jesus is sent to establish justice on earth, be a covenant for the people, a light for the Gentiles, and to open the eyes of the blind and release the captives. No small tasks for those of us who now live in Christ, yet, our participation in the body of Christ means that the Father’s charge to the Son is now also the Trinity’s charge to us.

Where are there people around you who live in darkness, who are unable to see the light of the glory of Christ and live without hope? What injustices surround you and require that you take a stand for justice? What people around you live in literal or figurative captivity? A friend of mine, Rachel, has been meeting weekly with a young man in prison for a year and a half now. This young man is incarcerated for murdering his parents and siblings. While there is some measure of mental disease, he is certainly coherent in their conversations, but he is a man without hope or knowledge of God who has spent many long days in solitary confinement. At times, his cell is searched and everything, letters or photos from the outside world, any personal object, including any object which brings hope, is taken from him never to be returned. There is often little reason given for the various punishments this man endures at the hands of his guards, except for their ability to use their position of power to remind him that he is nothing. Into this place, Rachel has steadfastly prayed with and cried with this young man, proclaiming the light, forgiveness, and transformation of Jesus Christ. She is quite literally taking a stand against injustice and proclaiming the release of God from the internal captivities which bind this young man, even as he lives out his days in physical confinement.

Rachel is living out the call of God to live in the power of the Holy Spirit and continue the work of Christ. Where are you faithfully living out the call of God to establish justice, be a light in darkness, open the eyes of the blind, and release the captives? Where in your life are you acting like the statues of the four people – one with hands over his eyes, one with hands over his ears, one with hands over his mouth, and one sitting on his hands – pretending you don’t see or hear the call of God and trying to ignore his call to speak or act the hope of God?

It is no accident that the baptism of Jesus comes at the beginning of the year. This is a time when we evaluate our lives and determine if there are things that need to be changed in the coming year. People everywhere are making New Year’s resolutions to change the way they look or the way they act. The baptism of Jesus offers us an opportunity to do something different, to remember his baptism and remember or anticipate our own, knowing that as we participate in the life of Christ we participate in his baptism which draws us into his body and connects us with his plans and purposes for the world. As we live in Christ, we are drawn into his ministry, establishing justice, caring for the broken, living as a light for those around us who walk in darkness, opening the eyes of the blind, and proclaiming release for the captives. As we live in Christ as part of his body, we too are sent by the Father in the name of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This morning, we are going to close with a special service to either remember or anticipate your own baptism as we remember the baptism of Christ. This service is a time to affirm the covenant of baptism and seek the ways in which God is sending you into the world to continue the ministry of Christ in the world through the power of the Spirit. After the liturgy, please come forward to either station as you are ready. The altar is also open if you would like to kneel with the Lord. You don’t have to be baptized to participate in this act of worship, nor do you have to be a member of this church or any church. If you are open to how God might call and empower you to continue his work, you are welcome.

Christ the King Sunday - John 18:33-37

John 18:33-37

³³ Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

³⁴ "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

³⁵ "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

³⁶ Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."

³⁷ "You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

This morning is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday after Pentecost and before Advent. It seems to me that this is a particularly perfect time of year for it. We have been living in the memory of Pentecost in the age of the church, the time when the Spirit has descended and the church goes out into the world. But we have not yet arrived at Advent. We are not yet awaiting the birth of the infant king born in a manger. It also seems like an exceptionally perfect Sunday because it challenges us to see Jesus as King before Advent, in a time when we may not normally see him that way. In my experience, we tend to think of Jesus as quite tame. We picture him as the silent baby of Away in a Manger and the gentle peasant wandering around and speaking to groups of people quietly gathered on the hillside eating lunch. We like to forget that Jesus is our King who can give us orders at any time, who can ask us to die for his glory, and who can call us up for service in his army at a moment’s notice. We like to place Jesus in a box on a shelf and pull him out on Sundays, at meal times, and when we need him. Christ the King Sunday refuses to let us brush Christ aside.

If Christ is our king, then it is wise for us to learn about his kingdom by looking at his life. In our passage from John, Jesus said that he came to testify to the truth. There are many messages claiming to be truth in our lives. Movies teach girls that relationships have fairy tale endings where “happily ever after” is the easy result of meeting Prince Charming. Our fascination with sports teaches our boys that athletic ability is more important than honesty, integrity, intelligence, and compassion. Our advertisements proclaim the image that women must be skinny, flawless, and young. Our music teaches that real men are strong, unemotional, and better than women. The world claims to be bringing us the truth every time we open our eyes, but none of its truths were proclaimed by Christ. Instead, he proclaimed a truth and a kingdom that are not of this world.

Jesus showed us his kingdom, and he brought us, the church, into it. In verse 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” His servants would fight. Servants. People under his authority. His servants were his followers, those who learned from him and obeyed him. Today we, the church, are those servants. As his servants, we learn from the master how to live in his kingdom.

Jesus’ life was constantly engaged with sin and evil in the world. He was reversing the consequences of the Fall by Adam and Eve. He taught that the poor would inherit the kingdom of God, and he traveled with no place to lay his head. He overturned the divisions between Israel and Samaria, Jew and Gentile. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and conquered demons. Throughout his ministry, the battles were for more than earthly possessions and power. From the temptation in the wilderness to the cross, Jesus was engaged in a spiritual war. And as his servants, Jesus has brought us into the battle on his side. We have plenty of demons to fight today, and plenty of the continuing effects of the Fall. This morning, we will look at four contemporary demons and what it might mean to be fighting against them.

At this time of year, the demon of poverty is one we cannot forget. We are surrounded by opportunities for giving, but such a systematic injustice requires more than a few coins dropped in a bucket or a gift purchased for a poor child. This battle requires faithful stewardship of our resources, living modestly so others can survive. It requires us to go against the American dream of constantly accumulating money and possessions and to follow the disciples in sharing the material blessings we have been given. It means following Jesus’ call to give to our brothers and sisters sacrificially instead of out of our abundance. The church has joined our King in this battle in many different ways – the angel trees in our hallways and last week’s food drive for the soup kitchen - and all of them are necessary. But I want to provide a different example this morning. There is a group of people in Durham who live at the Rutba House in Walltown, a poor and neglected neighborhood. Every evening they sit down at a common table and their door is open to all. People from the neighborhood with little to eat arrive next to the homeless, who are given a bed in addition to the meal. The housemates grow a variety of foods in their backyard, so they can have more to offer their guests. This group of people offers hope, compassion, advice, and love to each person who walks through their door, in addition to basic necessities, and through their ministry they are fighting the against the demon of poverty.

The second demon that I want to look at this morning is racism. In Jesus’ day, there was a large barrier between Jews and Gentiles. They could not share meals because the Jews ate different foods and had to remain ritually pure. They could not touch each other because a Jew could become unclean if he only touched a person who had touched something that was unclean. Jesus tore down these barriers. He stopped to talk with the Samaritan at the well. He ate dinner with tax collectors and sinners. And he gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan, showing that caring for a fellow human is more important than remaining ritually pure. For Paul, the church was the one place in Roman society where these barriers were broken down. He tells us that there is no longer Jew or Greek for those who are in Christ Jesus. The racial distinctions were dissolved. Unfortunately we have not learned this lesson very well. Our churches tend to be the most racially segregated part of society. We have White churches and Black churches. Latino, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Greek, and Swiss churches. Instead of breaking down social lines, we have made them worse. Instead of sharing a common table, we can still walk into restaurants where our Black brothers and sisters cannot get service. Instead of loving our neighbors and our brothers and sisters across national boundaries, we ostracize the Hispanics in this country, assuming that all are illegal residents, that none contribute to American society, and that they do not deserve compassion, understanding, and acceptance as fellow Christians. Race is still a big problem in this country, and one of the groups who is fighting this demon is called Ubuntu. They meet once a month and share a table, and they wrestle with racism. They hear each other’s stories, from all sides, and they learn to give compassion to those who are different than themselves. They learn about each others’ traditions, and they celebrate them together. They are engaging in the battle.

The third demon is violence. I don’t have to prove to you that this is a problem. You need only to pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV. The news is of bombings, murders, and attacks. There are wars being fought all over the world, and neighbors are killing each other. But the goal of the church is reconciliation not war. It is to bring people into loving relationship with the Living God and one another. After all, the two greatest commandments are to love God and one another. After all, the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. But wrestling this demon is hard. Our justice system serves its purpose, but it obviously does not stop violence. Our military does its job, but even it cannot police the world. The church must find a different way. I think that way is love and forgiveness in truth. There is a pastor I know who lives in South-Central Los Angeles. This is an area with high crime and high poverty, but he is the pastor of a South-Central LA church, so he lives in South-Central LA. Two years ago, his high school aged son and the daughter of a fellow pastor were sitting on his front porch talking when a car pulled up and a young man got out. The new gang initiations require you to shoot someone at close range, so this young man pulled out a gun, walked into the porch and shot the young man and young woman. The lady died, and the young man spent quite a bit of time in the hospital. But these pastors are still in South-Central LA. They know that the violence will only increase if the church leaves the city. Instead they need to do God’s work of bringing the message of peace and forgiveness to these lost teenagers who have found belonging in no where but these gangs. These pastors are using the power of conversion to wrestle the demon of violence.

The last demon is death, and it is also fought with conversion, but also with hope. We read many names on our prayer list each week. Sickness and grief surrounds us, but we do have hope. When we were baptized, we died with Christ, and we were also raised with him. So we have entered into his new life which will never end. For us, death is not the end of the story but only another step in the journey of our relationship with God. It is our hope in the resurrection which defeats the demon of death.

I want to close this morning by reading today’s appointed lesson from Revelation because it is in Christ’s return that his kingship will be realized fully and the battles with these demons will be brought to an end. Christ will reign over all of creation when he comes again in all of his glory, and until that day, we will continue to fight in our king’s army. So hear now the hope of the coming kingdom from Revelation, chapter 1, verses 4-8.

“Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits ^[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

7 "Look, he is coming with the clouds," ^[b]
and "every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him";
and all peoples on earth "will mourn because of him." ^[c] So shall it be! Amen.

8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Our King is coming soon. Amen.