In Oakland, the Kingdom of Heaven has Come Near

A sermon preached on January 26, 2020 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in White River Junction, Vermont. 

A couple months ago in Oakland, California, members of a group called Moms 4 Housing – a collective of unhoused mothers – moved themselves and their children into a house that had been sitting vacant for two years.

These moms knew this was not a realistic long-term solution. They knew how the world works. But they did it anyway. Because not only did they want to provide some period of comfort and safety for themselves and their kids – they wanted to tell the truth. They wanted to proclaim the message that housing is a human right. They wanted to be heard. They wanted to shake the community into seeing that what has become the “norm” in mercilessly gentrifying Oakland is not normal at all. They wanted us to understand that allowing people to live in the crisis of being unhoused while good homes sit empty waiting for corporations to sell them to executives from tech companies is unjust. They wanted people to hear, as journalist Jhumpa Bhattacharya writes, “housing is a racial and gender justice issue. Nationally, about 60 percent of families that are unhoused are single-mother households, half being Black single mothers.”[i] They wanted us to hear that this is sinful.

And their message drew a crowd. People from all over the area gathered around the house. Protesting and praying and singing. They drew a crowd because theirs was a sad message – a message about the truth of the injustice of this world. But theirs was also a message of hope – these moms’ actions suggested there is another way.

Last week, in the dark hours of the morning, the authorities descended on the home “in riot gear with armored vehicles” and AR-15 guns drawn[ii] to remove them from the property, arresting two of the moms – Misty Cross and Tolani King – as well as a supporter.[iii]

A couple millennia ago in the region along the Jordan River, John the Baptist emerged in the wilderness and began baptizing and preaching a message of repentance. John knew how this story would likely end – he knew how the world works. His message of returning to God and making the way for the “one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” involved real talk about the powers that be. But he did it anyway.

And his message also drew a crowd. People from all over the area gathered around the banks of the river. Protesting and praying and singing. Because his was a sad message – a message about the truth of the injustice of this world. But his was also a message of hope – each new watery baptism suggested there is another way.

In this morning’s gospel, Jesus hears that the authorities have descended on the banks of the Jordan and arrested John the Baptist. They did not have AR-15s, but we can assume they were armed.

When Jesus – divine and human – hears this, he retreats to Galilee. A pause. To feel, to pray, to plan. The prophet and preacher from the wilderness who not long ago stood baptizing him – has been taken away.

All is not right with the world. In fact in moments like these, all seems wrong with the world. It is a place that is unjust, cruel to the great benefit of the ruling class, and deeply dangerous to anyone who dares point this out.  

But Jesus does not linger long in his solitude. Here is where the action begins – he tumbles head-first into the earthly mission and ministry the imprisoned Baptizer told us he would.

He leaves his home and goes to the sea – to towns with names familiar from the poetry of the Prophet Isaiah both he and John know so well.

And he starts out preaching the same one-sentence sermon John did when he appeared in the wilderness: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

The Kingdom of Heaven is so close, Jesus tells us. This Kingdom that belongs to the poor in heart, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted. Not to the rich, the mighty and powerful.

Moms 4 Housing member Dominique Walker was interviewed following the eviction. Through tears, she told reporters: “They came in like an army for mothers and babies.”[iv]

In moving into that house Moms 4 Housing gave us a glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is a hopeful glimpse. And it is, at the same time, a threatening glimpse for earthly powers that be.

And so, earthly kingdoms – now as ever – respond with armed police forces and imprisonment. To put an end to this glimpse – the small fleeting glimpse – of things as God promises they will be.

Jesus’s message is one of true hope. But it can also be one of fear. Because if we identify with that latter group – the rich, the mighty, the powerful (which, friends, I often do) it can make people like the women of Moms 4 Housing seem deeply threatening.

And this is where repentance comes in.

Jesus begins his ministry by calling us to repent or, in other words, to return to God. To work toward being the sort of person that might claim citizenship in God’s kingdom. The sort of person who is not deeply threatened by the poor, the meek, the hungry.  Jesus calls us to this right here and right now. It’s not “far off,” he tells us. It’s close. It’s urgent.

Jesus calls us to pay attention to the ways in which we hurt other people, other creatures, and indeed, all of creation – either in personal ways, or in ways that contribute to larger systems of sin and injustice. To never forget that the people earthly political and economic systems keep in cycles of poverty and sickness and death are in fact those who will inherit God’s Kingdom.

It is to this same Kingdom living that Jesus calls his first disciples. And so – they leave behind those things that separate them from the possibility of that life and follow Jesus around the country – preaching and teaching and healing. And they draw a crowd. “Great crowds” begin to follow Jesus and his disciples “from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan,” Matthew tells us.

Because Jesus’s message is a sad message – a message about the truth of the injustice of this world. But his is also, fundamentally, a message of hope – each baptism into this life in Christ, this new life – yours, mine – suggests there is another way.

The movement is rolling along. Rolling toward Jerusalem, yes – rolling toward the cross, yes. Rolling toward arrests and imprisonment and disappointments, yes.

And. Always. Ultimately. Rolling toward Resurrection. Rolling toward the hope of God’s Kingdom.

And today, Jesus invites us to be a part of it – to roll right along with it. Over and over, he calls us to “follow me.” To believe there is another way, guided by and in and through the love God has for all of us – and that this other way is so close at hand, we sometimes catch a glimpse of it right here and right now.

After the eviction, the company that owns the Oakland house announced they would sell it to “a local trust on behalf of Moms 4 Housing,”[v] allowing mothers to buy it at an affordable rate and move back in.[vi] A restoration of a basic human right to a small number of beloved children of God. But also a public reminder to us all that this is how the world should look. And a reminder to followers of Jesus that this is how the world will look.

“The Kingdom of Heaven has come near,” Jesus tells us. Do you see it?

[i] https://msmagazine.com/2020/01/21/what-the-moms-4-housing-movement-reveals-about-the-homelessness-crisis/

[ii] https://www.ktvu.com/news/sheriffs-deputies-with-guns-drawn-evict-homeless-moms-from-oakland-home

[iii] https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/01/moms-4-housing-oakland-housing-crisis-arrests-alameda-county-police-riot-gear/

[iv] https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/01/moms-4-housing-oakland-housing-crisis-arrests-alameda-county-police-riot-gear/

[v] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-20/homeless-moms-4-housing-oakland-wedgewood-properties-deal

[vi] https://www.npr.org/2020/01/22/798392207/moms-4-housing-celebrate-win-in-battle-over-vacant-house