"The Reign of Christ" homily read to the Christ Episcopal congregation by Tim Sessions, July 27, 2025

The Reign of Christ, Pentecost 7 (C) – July 27, 2025

July 27, 2025

The Reign of Christ, Pentecost 7 (C) – July 27, 2025

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[RCL] Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19); Luke 11:1-13

When the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde urged President Trump to have mercy at the National Cathedral, she sparked a conversation on the proper relationship between the church and politics. On the one hand, many cheered her biblical call for mercy in public life. What else should one expect from an Episcopal bishop proclaiming the gospel in the National Cathedral? On the other hand, some criticized her for injecting partisan politics into the pulpit. For them, preaching and politics should not mix, at least if the perceived politics are not to their liking.

In our epistle lesson for today, Paul says that Christ is the “head of every ruler and authority.” He goes on to claim that Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them.” And in our Gospel lesson, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” Jesus is head of every ruler and authority. He disarms and triumphs over them. He teaches us to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom. It all sounds uncomfortably political. Given the fraught conversation about the church and politics today, how might we understand these lessons?

To answer this question, it may be helpful to take a detour into the field of political theology. Political theology is a recent development. It emerged in Germany in the 1960s. But it has a long history. Its roots are found in the Old and New Testaments, in St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. As church leaders struggle to find a faithful witness in these trying times, political theology may help.

Elizabeth Phillips, in her book Political Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed, distinguishes between a first and a second generation of political theologians. The first generation are critical friends of modernity. For them, the modern nation-state and civil society are given, either as neutral realms or as positive moments in the history of freedom. However, first-generation political theologians also challenged the privatization of religion that came with modernity. For them, Christianity was public and political instead of merely private and spiritual. And because they saw the nation-state as the center of politics, they viewed the political task of the church as the reform and revitalization of state institutions. The church transforms society by heralding God’s future kingdom of justice, freedom, and peace.

For example, Jurgen Moltmann’s theology of hope (also the name of his 1964 book on the topic) calls on the church to live in witness to the promises of God who can and will make all things right, promises made in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even though the present world is out of alignment with God’s future, Christians should not flee the world. Rather, living in the hope of the resurrection, the church calls all people and nations to the new future that God promises. The political task of the church, according to the first-generation of political theologians, is to offer criticism and advice to the modern state in an effort to direct it to the future kingdom announced in the gospel.

The second generation of political theologians inherited much from the first generation and also sought to overturn a great deal. Like the first generation, they stressed the public and political nature of Christian faith. However, they decisively shifted the locus of the political. The first generation saw the nation-state as the center of politics. In contrast, the second generation saw the church as the center of politics. The church is the true body politic, and the nation-state is a pale imitation or worse. Instead of trying to shore up state and society, the church provides an alternative kind of politics. Instead of politics founded on the war of all against all, the church offers a vision based on an original peace. Instead of politics based on the threat of violence to keep order, the church offers a vision of politics based on reconciliation. Instead of politics based on individualism and consumption, the church offers a vision of politics based on common goods and care. In the politics of the church, Christ is king, the Sermon on the Mount is our founding document, and our final destiny is the reconciliation of all people to one another and to God through Christ. As Stanley Hauerwas says, the primary social task of the church is to be the church. In doing so, the church bears witness to the reality of the kingdom of God as an alternative kind of politics. For second-generation theologians, the political task is not to offer advice to the nation-state, but to show the world there is a better way in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As we have seen, Paul says in Colossians that Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them.” Rulers and authorities are enigmatic figures. And not every scholar agrees about who or what Paul means by them. However, there is a general consensus that rulers and authorities are spiritual and cosmic powers that exercise control over aspects of the world. They are both personal, such as angels or demons, and impersonal, such as systems, ideologies, and institutions. They were created good (by and for Christ), but they have fallen and are in revolt. Indeed, as Paul says elsewhere (1 Cor 2:8), they “crucified the Lord of glory.” And yet, as Paul says in our passage, it is precisely through the cross that Christ triumphs over them. Jesus defeats and disarms the rulers and authorities, not through earthly power and violence, but through cross and resurrection. Therefore, the rulers and authorities are subordinate to Christ, who has created them, disarmed them, and reigns supreme over them. Christ reigns not just over personal souls, but over every realm of power—spiritual, political, cultural, and systemic. 

In Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” In this petition, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray for a new exodus, for the release of captive Israel. Jesus is not calling for the reform of government and society in the Roman Empire but for the deliverance of God’s people from bondage. To pray for the coming of God’s kingdom is to pray for the defeat of evil and the establishment of God’s rule. In Luke’s gospel, the coming of God’s kingdom means good news for the poor, release for the captive, recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed (Luke 4:18). And it will be inaugurated not through earthly power and violence, but through the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. In Luke, Jesus is turning worldly power upside down. As Mary sings about the God of Israel, “he has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly” (1:52). To pray for the coming reign of this God is to pray for the overcoming of an old order ruled by sin and violence by a new order dependent on God’s justice and peace.

If we step back and think about our epistle and gospel lessons in terms of the first and second generations of political theology, then we would have to say that today’s lessons are more consistent with the second generation. Jesus came proclaiming a kingdom that turned the world upside down. He taught his disciples to pray for this kingdom. He inaugurated it through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. And, as Paul tells us, Jesus defeated and disarmed the rulers and authorities of the world through his cross and resurrection. The politics in these passages are not about the reformation and revitalization of the Roman Empire. They are about the establishment of the new order of God’s justice and peace and the formation of a church that lives out the politics of a people who proclaim Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

 If we return to the fraught relationship between the church and politics, The Episcopal Church faces the challenge of discerning the nature of today’s rulers and authorities, at whatever level or location they might be found. Are they like the rulers and authorities who nailed Jesus to the cross? If so, then the second generation’s vision of the politics of the church as a radical alternative to the politics of the nation-state may make more sense. Or are the rulers and authorities of today very different from those whom Jesus defeated and disarmed? Are they generally benign and mostly in need of some constructive criticism? If so, then the first generation’s vision of political theology as offering friendly advice based on a vision of God’s future reign may make more sense. The important choice facing The Episcopal Church today is not really between being political or not political. Rather, the important question is how the church will address politics, like the first or second generation of political theologians.

The Rev. Joseph S. Pagano is co-editor of Common Prayer: Reflections on Episcopal Worship and Saving Words: 20 Redemptive Words Worth Rescuing.

 

Homily by The Rev. David Elliott given July 20, 2025 at Church of the Holy Trinity, Vicksburg, MS

 

 

Baptism

The Rev. David Elliott

(Homily given in service with three baptisms)

 I WAS IN WHOLE FOODS THE OTHER DAY AFTER CHURCH----HAD MY COLLAR ON AND SOMEONE CAME UP TO ME AND ASKED—ARE YOU AN EPISCOPALIAN PREACHER???”...  I WANTED TO SAY SOMETHING, BUT I KEPT MY MOUTH SHUT.... AND THEN SHE SAID—I WAS BAPTIZED INTO THE EPISCOPALIAN CHURCH, BUT WHEN I JOINED THE BAPTIST CHURCH, THEY BAPTIZED ME INTO THE BAPTIST CHURCH.... I BIT MY TONGUE AGAIN...

 NOW I WILL STAND HERE AND SAY WHAT I WANTED TO SAY THE OTHER DAY AND HAD TO BITE MY TONGUE TO KEEP FROM SAYING IT......FIRST—I’M A PRIEST AND NOT A PREACHER.... I KNOW THAT SOUNDS SNOBBY AND I’M SORRY FOR IT, BUT BEING A PRIEST AND NOT A PREACHER SAYS WHO I AM AND WHAT I DO–CELEBRATE THE SACRAMENTS---PREACH---AND SHARE GOD’S LOVE....

 AND THE NEXT THING—EPISCOPALIAN IS A NOUN AND NOT AN ADJECTIVE... I AM AN EPISCOPALIAN... I AM A MEMBER OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH–AN ADJECTIVE... I KNOW THIS SOUNDS SNOBBY TOO….AND THEN FINALLY THE POINT OF ALL THIS----ONE IS NOT BAPTIZED INTO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH----OR BAPTIZED INTO THE BAPTIST CHURCH... ONE IS BAPTIZED PERIOD–AND ONCE BAPTIZED ALWAYS BAPTIZED.. ONE IS BAPTIZED NOT INTO A CHURCH, BUT SIMPLY BAPTIZED INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST...

 AND I TALK ABOUT ALL THIS ON THE DAY THE CHURCH OFFERS THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM OFFERS THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM TO THREE CHILDREN..            

 BAPTISMS ARE VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR ME AND THERE ARE SOME I’LL NEVER FORGET...WHEN I WAS AT ST. ANDREW’S YEARS AGO, THERE WAS A WOMAN BEING CONFIRMED  WHO HAD NOT BEEN BAPTIZED…WE TALKED AND SHE WANTED TO BE IMMERSED…. YOU CAN’T IMMERSE SOMEONE IN OUR BAPTISMAL FONTS………

 I CALLED JOHN CLAYPOOL AT NORTHMINSTER BAPTIST AND ASKED IF I COLD BORROW HIS BAPTISTRY…HE SAID NO PROBLEM..… I WENT THERE PREPARED TO GET IN THE WATER WITH HER---BUT SINCE NORTHMINSTER DOESN’T RE-BAPTIZE YOU IF YOU JOIN, IT HADN’T BEEN USED IN AWHILE AND IT LEAKED…

 I THEN CALLED DAVID GRANT AT BROADMOOR BAPTIST—AND USED THAT ONE.. WE GOT THERE AND HE ASKED—DO YOUWANT TO USE MY WADERS?? I SAID “NO, I DUCK HUNT AND I WANT TO SEE WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO GET IN THAT WATER WITH HER—PUT HER UNDER AND BRING HER BACK UP AGAIN—AS ST. PAUL SAYS—“BURIED WITH CHRIST IN HIS DEATH AND RAISED WITH HIM IN HIS RESURRECTION”..

 I GOT IN THERE WTH HER WITH MY BLACK SHIRT, COLLAR, AND KHAKIS ON—AND PUT HER UNDER AND BROUGHT HER BACK UP… IT WAS VERY MEANINGFUL…..THE ONLY PROBLEM WAS THAT I HAD BROUGHT A CHANGE OF CLOTHES—BUT FORGOT TO BRING UNDERWEAR… IT WAS FEBRUARY AND VERY COLD…

 AND I’LL NEVER FORGET BAPTIZING MY GRANDCHILDREN.... I’VE BAPTIZED ALL EIGHT OF THEM EITHER IN CHURCHES–IN HOMES–OR ON BEACHES.. EACH IN ITS OWN WAY HAS BEEN VERY WONDERFUL AND MEANINGFUL FOR ME...

NOW FOR SOME, BAPTISM IS SORT OF LIKE JOINING THE “JESUS CLUB”–MUCH LIKE JOINING THE BOY SCOUTS–BROWNIES–ROTARY OR A SORORITY....YOU’RE INITIATED–YOU’RE MADE A MEMBER AND NOW YOU GET ALL THE BENEFITS AND PRIVILEGES WHEN YOU OBEY ALL THE RULES...

 FOR OTHERS, THEY THINK BAPTISM IS  “HELL INSURANCE”... IT ASSURES THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BAPTIZED THEY WILL NOT BURN IN THE FIERY COALS OF HELL WHEN THEY DIE... LET ME SAY RIGHT NOW THAT I DO NOT BELIEVE AND THIS CHURCH DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT IF A CHILD DIES WHO HAS NOT BEEN BAPTIZED THAT THAT CHILD GOES TO HELL... THE GOD WE BELIEVE IN WOULD NOT–DOES NOT–DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS...

 NOW THERE ARE CHURCHES THAT WILL NOT BAPTIZE CHILDREN–WILL NOT BAPTIZE BABIES... THEY BELIEVE THAT IN ORDER TO BE BAPTIZED THAT THE PERSON HAS TO BE OLD ENOUGH TO MAKE THE DECISION FOR THEMSELVES.... THIS CHURCH BELIEVES THAT BAPTISM IS A SACRAMENT NOT THAT WE HAVE TO QUALIFY FOR–NOT THAT WE HAVE TO WORK FOR–BUT A SACRAMENT THAT GOD BESTOWS ON US–A GIFT THAT GOD GIVES TO US WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED....

 THIS CHURCH ALSO BELIEVES THAT BAPTISMS ARE A PUBLIC SACRAMENT CELEBRATED BY THE WHOLE CHURCH GATHERED AS THE BODY OF CHRIST—AND THAT IS WHY WE’RE HERE TODAY... 

 ONE OTHER THING I WANT TO MENTION RIGHT NOW... IN A FEW MOMENTS, WE WILL ALL BE ASKED—“WILL YOU WHO WITNESS THESE VOWS DO ALL IN YOUR POWER TO SUPPORT THIS CHILD IN HIS LIFE IN CHRIST??” AND WE WILL ALL GIVE A RESOUNDING “WE WILL” AND THEN PROMPTLY FORGET ALL ABOUT WHAT WE SAID...

 WHEN I WAS AT GENERAL CONVENTION, THERE WAS A DOCUMENT I WISH I HAD BOUGHT.. IT WAS A LARGE CERTIFICATE WITH THE CHILD’S NAME ON IT AND ON IT WERE THE WORDS—AT THIS BAPTISM INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST WE THE UNDERSIGNED PLEDGE TO SUPPORT THIS CHILD IN THEIR LIFE IN CHRIST.....AND ALL PRESENT WOULD SIGN IT....

 I COULD PICTURE MICHAEL—COLLINS—AND GRAYSON WITH THIER PARENTS AND GODPARENTS STANDING OVER IN THE PARISH HALL WITH THIS DOCUMENT AND ALL OF US GOING BY AND SIGNING IT AND COMMITTING OURSELVES TO SUPPORTING THESE CHILDREN IN THEIR LIFE IN CHRIST….....

 BAPTISM IS NOT SOMETHING WE DO FOR OURSELVES–NOT REALLY A DECISION WE MAKE ON OUR OWN... IT IS SOMETHING GOD DOES.. IT’S AN ACTION THAT GOD TAKES IN BESTOWING UPON EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US THE ALL-ENCOMPASSING LOVE  OF ALMIGHTY GOD–GOD’S ACCEPTANCE–GOD’S FORGIVENESS–GOD’S GRACE..

 WHEN THAT WATER IS POURED UPON MICHAEL—COLLINS—AND GRAYSON–GOD MAKES A COVENANT WITH THEM THAT GOD WILL NEVER EVER BREAK... GOD PROMISES TO LOVE THEM–ACCEPT THEM–FORGIVE THEM FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE... THERE IS NOTHING–NOTHING THEY CAN EVER DO TO FALL OUT OF GOD’S LOVE...

 LISTEN TO WHAT GOD SAID TO JESUS WHEN HE WAS BAPTIZED AND HE CAME UP OUT OF THAT WATER....THIS IS MY SON–THE BELOVED–WITH WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED....  GOD LOOKS ON YOU AND ME AND SAYS—THIS IS MY BELOVED SON–THIS IS MY BELOVED DAUGHTER IN WHOM MY SOUL DELIGHTS....THE WAY YOU AND I FEEL ABOUT OUR CHILDREN IS THE WAY GOD FEELS ABOUT EACH OF US–WHETHER WE ARE EIGHT DAYS OLDS—EIGHT MONTHS OLD–EIGHT YEARS–EIGHTY YEARS–EIGHTY-EIGHT.....

 NO MATTER WHAT OUR AGE MAY BE–THIS IS GOD’S FUNDAMENTAL ATTITUDE TOWARD EACH OF US—DELIGHT... GOD DELIGHTS IN US AS A PARENT DELIGHTS IN A CHILD...

 AND ALSO-----THESE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS A PARENT CAN EVER TELL A CHILD–THAT WE LOVE THEM–RESPECT THEM–DELIGHT AND ARE PLEASED WITH THEM...TO ALL OF US HERE THIS DAY—NEVER LET A DAY GO BY THAT YOU DON’T TELL YOUR CHILDREN–NO MATTER HOW OLD THEY ARE–THAT YOU LOVE THEM–THAT THEY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN YOUR LIFE..             

 LISTEN TO PART OF THE PRAYER THAT’S GOING TO BE PRAYED OVER MICHAEL—COLLINS—AND GRAYSON AFTER THEY’RE BAPTIZED....SUSTAIN THEM O LORD IN YOUR HOLY SPIRIT... GIVE THEM AN INQUIRING AND DISCERNING HEART–THE COURAGE TO WILL AND TO PERSEVERE–THE SPIRIT TO KNOW AND TO LOVE YOU AND THE GIFT OF JOY AND WONDER IN ALL YOUR WORKS...

 IT’S A WONDERFUL WAY TO BEGIN LIFE–A FANTASTIC WAY TO LIVE LIFE!!!

 (Homily given at Church of the Holy Trinity, Vicksburg, July 20, 2025)

 

The Rev. Dr. Deacon Bette Kauffman homily from July 6, 2025, at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, LA

 

Choose Hope, Choose Love

6 July 2025

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph, LA

Year C, Pentecost 4

2 Kings 5:1-14; Galatians 6:1-16; Luke 10:1-11,16-20

 

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus sends seventy followers ahead of him, two by two to heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God. They go, they do, and they return rejoicing.

That’s the point I want to focus on today: They return rejoicing.

You have perhaps experienced this phenomenon. You have perhaps heard others talk about their experience. We go out to minister and we are ministered to by those we sought to serve.

I went to the Dominican Republic a number of years ago with a handful of deacons. We traveled about the countryside with several Dominican deacons and worshipped with folks in tiny, unairconditioned churches. Those churches were mostly bare of ornamentation; they might have one cross, one painting of the Holy Family, but very little else. The altars were a wooden table made by the local carpenter. The pews were crude benches.

But the worship was heartfelt and joyful, the people in awe that we had come to worship with them. I came home a different person, a little bit haunted by the stark contrast between those churches and most U.S. American churches, but also deeply grateful and refreshed.

This phenomenon of returning joyful, having been ministered to by those we serve is, not merely the joy of a job well done. It’s not merely the good feeling we get when those we minister to are grateful. Or that glow of virtue we get from having done a good deed. There’s something deeper than all of that going on.

The people Jesus sent out were ordinary folks, probably what we would consider working class—literally laborers. We know that because those are the kind of folks who followed Jesus: fishermen, carpenters and such. They most assuredly were not religious leaders—pharisees, sadducees, priests, deacons and such—because those folks spent their time arguing with Jesus and plotting against him, NOT following him.

These ordinary folks lived in a terrible time, a time of oppression by centralized political power, a time of corruption and of poverty and food insecurity. Life was fragile.

In sending them out, Jesus warned them that it would not be easy. Some would reject them. They were like sheep going among wolves.

But these ordinary folks went as sent by Jesus, and they were changed by their acts of mercy. They came back rejoicing, exulting in what they had been able to accomplish—which clearly exceeded their fondest hopes and expectations. You can hear the glee in Jesus’ voice as he greets them, proclaiming that he had seen Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightening.

Jesus also explains to them that he had given them power over enemies, but then he cautions: don’t rejoice over the power; rejoice that your name is written in heaven.

Here’s what I think all this means: WE, in our mixed motives, are not what bring about the Kingdom of God. Rather, the Kingdom of God comes forth, pretty much in spite of us, through our actions and interactions in service to others. We do not first love God then serve others. We serve others and in serving others become lovers of God.

See, I think we pay a lot of lip service loving God. Yes, yes, I love God, we say. But how do you love… an entity that you cannot see or touch? The only way we can put our arms of love around God is by putting them around another human being.

Now that is easy to see and do when it comes to friends and family. Of course we experience hope and joy and the love of God when we put our arms around friends and family! We would be less than human if we didn’t.

Just a quick aside here. It should come as no surprise that our prisons are full of people who did not experience the love of God through loving relationships with friends and family as they grew up. This is attested to by the experiences of the men and women who conduct Kairos ministry—like Fr. Ned Webster--and report that hardened criminals break down into tears when given a dozen cookies baked for them by a complete stranger. It speaks to them of love they have never known.

I do not think we fully comprehend how hollow it is to say “I love God,” all while ignoring the plight of the millions of God’s children who live in fear and in poverty and poor health.

Serving others—especially outside our circle of family and friends, those who cannot do anything for us in return, those Jesus describes as the least of these—transforms us--even more than them.

Here’s how Mother Teresa of Calcutta put it: “Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God the better because of them.”

Today we are sent into a world full of “wolves” of war, violence, greed, divisive politics and conflict over scarce resources—like food and water—due not only to war and greed but climate change accelerated by our own behavior.

Today’s primary disease is no longer leprosy or tuberculosis, but possibly the utter loss of hope that comes from feeling unwanted, uncared for, abandoned by everyone and unable to make a difference in one’s own life, much less the world.

It is hard to have hope in today’s world. Yet we are sent, and as we go, I think we will find that hope is like love: It’s not something we have that enables us to act, it’s something that we create by acting.

Moreover, love and hope are contagious. Our acting transforms not only us, but those around us. Our hopeful act, our loving act make us more hopeful and loving, and those around us start acting in a more loving and hopeful way.

Hope and love are not feelings we have so much as choices we make. And by making and acting on those choices, we are transformed into loving, hope-filled people.

In the name of God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit, AMEN.