2. Empire can be defined in various ways. Duane Clinker offers three
characteristics:
1. An empire expands beyond normal boundaries, so its national
interests extend to include military installations abroad, multinational
corporations owned by the empire’s citizens, and the interests of its
allies.
2. An empire normally develops extraordinary military power.
3. An empire exerts its influence in a variety of ways—through
economics, culture, religion, education, and politics.
David Korten offers four characteristics of an empire:
1. Empires embrace the idea of material luxury and excess for the ruling
classes.
2. Empires are dedicated to absolute military supremacy.
3. Empires emphasize the masculine values of violence and domination
over the feminine values of nurture and cooperation.
4. Empires create a ceiling for human development and impede
development beyond their current level.
4. Stages of Empire
Expansion
Struggle/Recovery
Over-extension
Divestment/Collapse
5. How would you expect an
empire to behave after it
has passed its prime?
6. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in
the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called
the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
remember that you were at that time separated from
Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope
and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far off have been brought near by the
blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has
made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the
dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of
commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might
create in himself one new humanity in place of the two,
so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in
one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
7. And he came and preached peace to you who
were far off and peace to those who were near. For
through him we both have access in one Spirit to the
Father. So then you are no longer strangers and
aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ
Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the
whole structure, being joined together, grows into a
holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being
built together into a dwelling place for God by the
Spirit.
8. Preaching peace ...
- Preaching peace through a crucified
man (not a crucifying man).
- Preaching peace through a way of love
& service (not conquest & domination).
- Preaching peace with a rhetoric of
vulnerability (not coercive speech).
- Preaching peace with a call to
repentance (not convention)
12. What are we singing?
Harmony, poetry, and hostility
13. All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
- Cecil Alexander (1848)
14. Each little flower that opens,/ Each little bird that sings,/
He made their glowing colors./ He made their tiny
wings.
The purple headed mountains,/ The river running by,/
The sunset and the morning/ That brightens up the sky.
The cold wind in the winter,/ The pleasant summer sun,/
The ripe fruits in the garden,/ He made them every one.
The tall trees in the greenwood,/The meadows where we
play,/ The rushes by the water,/ To gather every day.
He gave us eyes to see them,/ And lips that we might
tell/ How great is God Almighty,/ Who has made all
things well.
15. The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
16. Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as
to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal master, leads against the
foe;
Forward into battle see his banners go!
-Sabine Baring-Gould
19. What would a ceremonial washing mean
in terms of identity... overseen by the
priests, before entering the temple
precincts?
20. What would it mean for John to leave
Jerusalem to baptize?
21. Where did John baptize?
in the wilderness, at the
Jordan -
not in the temple.
He was the son of a priest
operating outside the
priestly system.
22. But John did not join a
community of Essenes
either ...
They created closed,
hyper-exclusive, hyper-
puritan apocalyptic
communities in the
wilderness.
27. In Christ (in the kingdom) ...
neither Jew nor Greek ...
male nor female ...
slave nor free ...
A new citizenship, a new identity, a new
solidarity.
32. We are reconciled ... with God, with
ourselves, with our neighbors, with our
enemies, with all creation.
33. In John’s gospel:
Bread as manna ...
Food for a journey of liberation ... en
route to a new land, a new way of
life ...
34. For Paul ...
Eucharist as passover ... not day of
atonement.
Meal of liberation ...
Meal of anticipation ...
35. Meal of unity ...
Meal of solidarity ...
Meal of one-anotherness
Meal of Exodus from empire
36. All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
- Cecil Alexander (1848)
37. Therefore, since we are receiving a
kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us
be thankful, and so worship God
acceptably with reverence and awe ...
Hebrews 12
41. Christ is the image of the
God who can’t be seen.
Christ is the image of the
God who can’t be seen.
The firstborn of all
creation.
42. In him all things were created.
Things in heaven and on
earth -
Things visible and invisible -
Whether thrones or
dominions, rulers or powers.
Through him all things have
been created.
For him all things have been
created.
43. And he is before all things.
All things hold together in
him.
And he is the head of the
body, the church.
44. He is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead.
So in everything he has the first
place.
For in him all the fullness -
The fullness of God -
Was pleased to dwell.
45. In Him God was pleased to
reconcile all things
All things to himself,
All things on earth,
all things in heaven,
By making peace through the
blood of his cross.
By making peace through the
blood of his cross.
46. Christ is the image of the
God who can’t be seen.
Christ is the image of the
God who can’t be seen.
Amen.
48. Therefore remember that at one time you
Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by
what is called the circumcision, which is made in the
flesh by hands— remember that you were at that
time separated from Christ, alienated from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without
God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who
once were far off have been brought near by the
blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has
made us both one and has broken down in his flesh
the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of
commandments expressed in ordinances, that he
might create in himself one new man in place of the
two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to
God in one body through the cross, thereby killing
the hostility.
49. And he came and preached peace to you who
were far off and peace to those who were near. For
through him we both have access in one Spirit to the
Father. So then you are no longer strangers and
aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ
Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the
whole structure, being joined together, grows into a
holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being
built together into a dwelling place for God by the
Spirit.