Disciple: Ye Holy Angels Bright, Assist Our Song

The following is adapted from the sermon delivered by the Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman during the Opening Eucharist at the 206th Annual Convention on November 20, 2021.

“Soon and very soon, we’re going to see the King.” The spiritual by Andraé Crouch offers us a promise. It is a promise at the heart of our readings and collect. It is a promise that is at the center of our faith. Jesus is our King. The traditional hymns we sing today pick up the same theme. Jesus is our matchless King, King of all. Jesus is the one we seek.

Our theme for our convention this year is the line from Psalm 126:1, “Then were we like those who dream.” So let’s start with the reading from Daniel (7:9-10, 13-14) this morning, because Daniel is a dreamer, a visionary and an interpreter of dreams. And Daniel is dreaming about a king.

The Daniel passage is a vision of the Son of Man, the one to whom is given dominion and glory and kingship. As Christians, we associate Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man with Jesus. And part of the promise here is that Jesus’ kingship is indestructible. The last line reads, “his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.”

A PROMISE SORELY TESTED

Truthfully, this is a promise that has been sorely tested in the last year and a half. It has not always felt, during this pandemic, that Jesus was in charge or that his kingship was secure. It has felt chaotic and even desperate at times. Whatever your associations with kingship, the experience has left us wondering not only where is Jesus in all of this, but which end is up?

It has been disorienting, lonely and painful at times—and the grief has been hard to bear—and, yet, we can still hear the promise, soon and very soon. It reverberates like an ancient drum beat. Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king.

This past summer I was on a retreat at Valle Crucis. It was my first time there, and I was awed by the beauty of the setting and the holiness of the place. The first afternoon, I took a hike up to the waterfall above the retreat center. If you have been there you probably know the path. It is a fairly steep trail, not much more than a mile. And as I was hiking, at one point I remember, distinctly, that I began to hear the sound of the waterfall, even before I could see it.

I was reminded of the plea from the prophet Amos, “Let justice roll down like waters.” Justice is a promise from God that we sometimes hear about before we actually see it.

Jesus’ kingship is like this. We hear about it in the gospel stories. We learn about it in the exchange between Jesus and Pilate. Jesus teaches us about what it will look like. But we hear it before we see it.

And Jesus’ kingship is not, as he tells us, from this world. It is a different kind of kingship. He says to Pilate: “My kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36) And then the exchange gets even more interesting. Jesus says, “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37)

In John’s gospel, one of the ways people acknowledge who Jesus is, is by the way they respond to the sound of his voice. Jesus calls Andrew and Peter, and they follow him. Jesus tells us he is the good shepherd, and his sheep know his voice. Jesus calls to Lazarus, “Come out!” Literally, Lazarus: Here! Now! And Lazarus stumbles out. Jesus calls Mary by name in the garden near the empty tomb, and she recognizes him: “Rabboni, teacher.”

ALL ABOUT TRUTH-TELLING

Jesus is teaching us today about his kingship, and he is clear that it is all about truth-telling. Jesus has come to testify to the truth. Truth-telling is, of course, the first step in Becoming Beloved Community. Jesus is beginning with the hardest.

Have you ever been caught in a lie? Have you ever had to say something to someone in authority over you that you knew would be hard for them to hear? Have you ever felt the knot in your stomach when you knew what you were about to say to a group was likely to fall on deaf ears, but you said it anyway?

Truth-telling is not easy, but telling the truth is central to who Jesus is. Jesus is the king of truth-telling. It is why he has come into the world.

This past week I was attending a vestry meeting with one of our parishes. It was a Zoom meeting. The rector sent out the agenda ahead of time. As I looked it over, this is what I saw on the agenda for the meeting: Section 1, Formation—Prayer; Section 2, Information—Time with the Bishop; Section 3, Decisions—Renovation Update, Stewardship Update, Christmas Schedule, Annual Meeting Review, Elephants.

Okay, that last one got my attention. I was having a Sesame Street moment: “One of these things is not like the others.” This would mark the first time I had been to a vestry meeting and found Elephants on the agenda. And it was listed under the heading “Decisions.”

When we got to that point on the agenda, the rector said to me; “You might be wondering what this is about.” He went on to explain, “As leaders in our community, sometimes someone will come to one of us with something we need to hear. It might be something critical, it might be something hard to talk about, it might be a rumor or a misperception, but it is something we need to address for the health and well-being of our congregation. We call these elephants, and we bring them up here and decide, together, what to do about them.”

I absolutely love this! The leadership of this congregation has made it a priority to create space in their monthly gatherings to share with each other hard truths, or misperceptions and misunderstandings, and to decide, together, how to respond.

Jesus’ kingdom is the kingdom of truth-telling. Wherever we are facing the truth, and telling the truth, we are living into his promise.

Later today you will hear about the next steps in our Mission Strategy process. You already know the five priorities: Racial Justice and Reconciliation, Congregational Vitality, Collaboration and New Communities, Lifelong Christian Formation and Creation Care. You are a part of this process, and we need your voices. We need to hear the truth that only you can share about where we are headed as a diocese, about our five priorities and about where we believe God is calling us and leading us. Your perspective is essential.

We need your truth-telling, because this is how we discern together what beloved community will look like here. And we need your voices, because through your words, speaking your truth in love, we can hear the beloved community, even before we see it.

Jesus’ kingdom is not from here, but Jesus’ kingdom is being born again, here, in us, in our shared mission, in the dreams we are dreaming together, and in the ways we listen to and learn from each other. Jesus’ kingdom is all about creating, in us, God’s beloved community. Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King—the king of truth-telling, our matchless king, the king of all. Amen.

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

As I watched,
thrones were set in place,
and an Ancient One took his throne,
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames,
and its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued
and flowed out from his presence.
A thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand
stood attending him.
The court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.
As I watched in the night visions,
I saw one like a human being
coming with the clouds of heaven.
And he came to the Ancient One
and was presented before him.
To him was given dominion
and glory and kingship,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not pass away,
and his kingship is one
that shall never be destroyed.

The Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman is the XII Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.