Sermon 9.15.13

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10                                        

Our old testament passage today is very dark!  Jeremiah presents us with a devastating apocalyptic vision of what is to come for God's people.  A hot wind too strong for winnowing or cleansing, that will bring destruction.  A time of judgement.  The prophet has God saying, "My people are foolish, stupid children with no understanding, skilled at doing evil, but do not know how to do good."  The whole earth is of wasteland, a desolation, the cities are in ruin.  A land of darkness, earthquakes, the birds have fled and the once fruitful land turned to a desert.  All brought about by the fierce anger of God.

The Psalm continues this theme of the foolish who say in their hearts, "There is no God."  The Psalmist laments, there is none who does any good and depicts The Lord, looking down from heaven upon us all searching for just one person who might be wise, who might follow after God, but there is no one who does good, no not one.

When I hear language like this, so dark and pessimistic, when folks start talking like this, in such stark absolutes about how horrible everything is I want to say to them, "Its time to take a break!  Get some rest!  Get some perspective!"

I think immediately of burn out.  Burn out, Compassion Fatigue, these are real conditions that effect especially us who are faithful people, who really do want to help make the world a better place, who have a vision of how the world could be and yet are constantly bombarded with the reality of how we all fall so short of this vision.

It is amazing how negative we can so quickly turn, when our frustration level gets too high, when all of our efforts seem to be of no avail.  When we have just become too tired to continue on and yet we keep pushing ourselves out of sense of duty.  How quickly we begin to feel overwhelmed by all the problems we can't fix, all the ways we have no control over how things are going.   We begin to feel all alone, the only one left.  We know we can't do it on our own, yet we push on, feeling so isolated.  We begin to focus on all the things that are going wrong, on all the people who are really just in the way.  Those we started out hoping to help and comfort and heal turn into people we blame.  All those companions on the way who shared the vision with us become people we criticize and complain about.

Then we start to say things that really are just not true.  We make these sweeping negative generalizations about the whole world.  We say silly things really that we really do believe like the words of the Psalmist spoken out his own deep depression.  "No one does good.  Everyone is evil.  All are corrupt.  No one is wise.  No body has any faith."

When the reality is it is we who have lost our faith.  We who have lost hope.  We who have allowed our exhaustion to color the way we see the world.  If we are honest with ourselves we all can recall moments when we have let our own exhaustion turn our thoughts negative.  Maybe we have apologized when we snapped at our spouses or children, saying, "Forgive me, I am just really tired."  We have all watched the quality of our communities deteriorate when the pressure gets too high.  Committee meetings turn ugly, bickering increases, hurtful things are said, often because we have all just been working too hard for too long to try to solve some problem that seems to just go on and on.  And we are exhausted.  And yet we continue to try to push through!

If you are tired, what really is the only solution for this?  Rest.  Sometimes it is just sleep!  There is really nothing like a good night's sleep!  Sleep can really do wonders!  Our spiritual and emotional lives really are all wrapped up in our physical bodies.  Doing something completely different, taking a break, recreation.  The word is re-creation.  We really can rejuvenate ourselves, re-create ourselves by taking a break, letting go, quit beating our heads against a wall.  Often just by stopping doing that one thing that is killing us, we get a whole new perspective on our lives.  Peace only comes when we actually can stop.

Ultimately the spiritual peace that we seek for ourselves and the world is not something we attain for ourselves.  We know the doctrine perhaps, that we are saved by faith alone, not by works, but we really live our lives, practically speaking, like it all depends on us.  If we weren't doing what we do, the world would fall apart.

Paul's letter to Timothy says something completely different.  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  Paul gives the example, of himself, a saved sinner, and his story is not about his own righteousness, his own model character, which others should follow.  No, his story is an example of what the power of God can do.  Paul begins with his gratitude to Jesus who strengthens him.  He is clear that he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, a man of violence, but rather than dwelling here, he talks of the mercy he has received in his own life and relies instead upon the way that God in Christ defines him, a faithful servant.  He talks about the grace and love of Christ that has come into his life.  He talks about the utmost patience that Jesus Christ has displayed in working with him, the foremost of sinners.  This patience is that constant vision that though we may all too well know the negative about ourselves and the world, Jesus is constantly seeing us and calling us into the vision he has for us, modeling and shaping us into the Good and Faithful Servants he already knows we are.  This is the power of God working in us.

In our gospel today the righteous religious leaders of the day complain about Jesus saying, He welcomes sinners and eats with them."  They don't seem to understand why Jesus is so concerned with this unsavory bunch, these outcasts, the rabble, the unclean, those outside the pale of civilized society.  It seems in this passage, quite the opposite of the Jeremiah passage, that the perception here is that most people seem to be doing just fine.  We might say they are living in denial, in their own sense of their own righteousness perhaps.

Jesus, though, tells a parable about sheep, and the first thing to notice is that most of the sheep really are doing just fine.  In this parable 99% of the world is actually ok.  Well enough, actually, that the shepherd can leave them unattended and go off in search of that 1% of the flock that is lost.  He leaves the 99 and goes after the one that is lost.  In fact, all the attention is paid to this one lost soul, really disregarding all the rest.  Quite the opposite of the vision in Jeremiah with its focus on all the evil of everyone.  Here the emphasis is on the few that are left out of the blessing of creation, that are on the edge, lost and separated from the rest of the flock.  The concern is for the safety of these lost ones and the desire is to reunite them with the rest of the flock where they too can share in the good pasture, drink from the stream also, and be cared and tended for by the shepherd - where they too can bask in the blessing of creation.

And where they can join in on the cosmic celebration that will take place upon their return. For there will be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

And so we can see ourselves and the world in a couple different ways.  We can catch the glimpse that Jesus offers us of all people in heaven and on earth sharing in the blessing of God's creation and joining in together in a cosmic celebration.  In this vision it is just unthinkable that anyone should be left out, and we will do all we can to make sure that all are included, and we will rejoice when we see our own communities mirror this ultimate heavenly inclusive vision.

Or we can see the whole world as a dark and desolate and lonely place described in Jeremiah.  If you are seeing the world this way, perhaps it is you that are lost.  Perhaps you have found yourself left out of blessing, far away from the good pasture, perhaps you feel all alone and see no one who can be your companion on the way.  The lost are not just those other folks out there on the fringe, who we have to go find.  Sometimes the lost are ourselves as well. Sometimes it is we who are wondering exhausted in a wilderness and it is we who need to find rest again in the shepherds arms.  It is we who need to be laid upon his shoulders and carried for awhile while he rejoices in finding us.

One of my favorite songs is called "Jubilee" by Mary Chapin Carpenter.  It is the story of a young man, lost himself, who struggles to accept the community of people who love him.  He has a hard time seeing how much he needs the rest that is being offered to him.  Trouble seeing how much he really wants the company of his friends who love him.  Trouble grasping what a wonderful incredible joyful time he will have when he finally joins the celebration.  He is so use to the "home" he has in his isolation and depression that it is hard to see what is being offered to him.   The song ends like this:

And I can tell by the way you're standing
With your eyes filling with tears
That it's habit alone keeps you turning for home
Even though your home is right here

Where the people who love you are gathered
Under the wise wishing tree
May we all be considered then straight on delivered
Down to the jubilee

'Cause the people who love you are waiting
And they'll wait just as long as need be

The people who love you are waiting, Jesus is waiting, the whole of heaven and earth in all it goodness and beauty and splendor, all its incredible blessing, is waiting.  Take some time to rest from your weariness.  Join in the party!  Once again receive the strength and power to share the good news that all that are lost are invited to come home.

Beginning of a New Era (Sermon Christmas Eve 2012)

I just returned today from Guatemala.  I was in Guatemala for the celebration of the end of the 13th B'ktun of the Mayan Long Calendar and the beginning of a new era.  Now the Mayan's never said that world was going to end on Dec 21, 2012.  That is just the end of one of their measurements of time - each B'ktun is 144,000 days, or roughly 400 years - and the beginning of a new one.  Mayan sense of time is cyclical or perhaps like a spiral and it is not about projecting an end at all, but rather imagining a repetitive cycle of mythic themes, that imbue ordinary time and place with a connection to eternal spirit.

Mayan people today, in fact much of the government publicity in Guatemala around the B'ktun, speak about the beginning of a new era.  Big banners in the Park in Xela where I was, announced the Beginning of a New Dawn for the Mayan people, the beginning of a new era which we would all join in together.  This hope and expectation has to be understood in the context and reality of Guatemala.

In 1996, with the signing of a peace treaty, Guatemala emerged from a 36 year bloody civil war in which an estimated 200,000 poor and indigenous people were killed or disappeared by a series of repressive military regimes backed by our own US government.  The peace treaty included such things as return of indigenous lands, respect and protection of indigenous spiritual practices and culture. Many of these things are still in process of being incorporated into Guatemalan law.  It is hard for many to have hope, but it would be nice, after so many years of war, that a new era of peace and justice would be dawning, a new time would be coming forth in which the rights of indigenous people would truly be respected.

Such was the message of Mayan speakers during the celebrations I attended. There were calls to end the discrimination against indigenous people, which is still rampant.  People spoke of their desire to work together with all, indigenous and non-indigenous for a new Guatemala.

Similar was the situation and hope of many in Israel in the first century after years of repression by the Roman government.  There was a sense then also of the fullness of time, as many deep hopes for liberation began to coalesce.  Early Christians saw themselves as the first fruits of this new kind of community.  It was the mutual love that they shared with one another that caught the attention of so many in those days.  This hope was repeated in the message the angels proclaimed upon the birth of the little child, "Peace on Earth and Good Will toward All."  It was the same hope echoed in the Song of Mary, a time when the rich would be humbled and the poor would be exalted.  It is the dream of a time in which we would have the strength and power to find a new way to live together.  All of this hope is still wrapped up in the birth of this child tonight.

During my time in Guatemala, I had the chance to listen to Javier who spoke of growing up in Nicaragua in the 70's and becoming a Pentecostal pastor during the revolution there.  He was confronted by the same reality of poverty, injustice and oppression in his country and rereading the story of the Exodus, he became convinced that the gospel was about the liberation of the poor.  He took up the cause of the revolution, joining in the mass protests that, along with the armed rebellion, led to the end of the repressive Bautista government.  He was forced underground because of his convictions.  Many there were also being killed and disappeared just for being poor or helping the poor.  He is the first to speak of the imperfection of worldly governments and of the power that corrupts, yet nevertheless he remains convinced that the work of Christianity is about modeling that Just and Peaceful Kingdom of God which is our hope.

Javier attends San Marcos Episcopal Church in Xela.  The Episcopal Church is a very small slice of the pie in Guatemala and few I talked to had ever heard of it.  It is small but vibrant faith community.  The small chapel was packed the Sunday I attended.  They operate a daily meal program for seniors, and they have a strong ministry with the LGBT community in Xela.  They also do a English speaking service for the international community there.

In the evening we did a posada with folks from the church reenacting Mary and Joseph's search for a place to stay on this night.  I always thought that this was a Mexican tradition, but I was assured by folks at the church that the posada had its origin in Guatemala.  And in fact it is a wide spread practice.   On the way to the church's posada we passed several processions of people caring candles each with a couple dressed as Mary and Joseph.  Our procession ended up in the home of one of the parishioners.  At first the traditional song sung at the porch has the homeowner denying entry then finally they get to come in with the song  Enter Holy Pilgrims, Entre Santos Pereginos.  Inside we were treated to a big party.  They did this for nine nights straight ending up at the church on the last night before the Noche Buena, Christmas Eve, tonight.  A lot of partying. I only made it to one posada.  With the posada the church reenacts one of the central themes that informs all of its work, welcoming the stranger, the other, welcoming all into a new home that has enough room for everyone.

Being in Guatemala again at this time, I was reminded that there are many ways to approach this story.  The bible has been used both to justify oppression as well as proclaim the good news of liberation.  An article I read while there speaks of four ways of approaching the bible and Christianity that have been at play in Central America.

The first reading comes from the church aligned with the conquistadors.  This 500 year history of oppression is very much a real and present reality in Latin America as it is on reservations here in North America though obviously much more hidden from the awareness of many us.  Just one quote from Hernan Cortez will give you an idea: "We carried the flag of the Cross and fought for our faith ... God gave us so much victory that we killed many people ..."

Rios Montt, one of the many military dictators in Guatemala's recent history, now on trial for war crimes,  presided over the bloodiest period of the war.  He was a fervent evangelical who preached constantly to the nation about his God given mission to save Guatemala while at the same time his scorched earth policies, massacres and state sponsored terror sought to "convert" the poor from their support of the revolution by wholesale slaughter of the innocents.

The second reading is a rejection of the bible completely because of its use as a tool of oppression.  When Pope John Paul II visited Central America a group of Indigenous People wrote a letter to the Pope in which they returned the bible to him, "Because," they said, "in five hundred years it has given us neither love, nor peace, nor justice.  Please, take your Bible and give it back to our oppressors, because they need its moral precepts more than we."

A third reading though does find the liberation of the poor in the scriptures, especially in the story of the Exodus as Javier's story illustrates.  Though this reading does not answer the radical question of the other from a different cultural and different faith background.  How do we read the Exodus story as both a story of liberation but at the same time realize that from the Canaanite perspective it is also a story of conquest - a complete devaluation of the other, the stranger.

A fourth reading seeks to take seriously the other, it is an interpretation of the story by and with the indigenous themselves.  This community of indigenous does not reject the bible, quite the opposite has a vibrant faith in the Story of Christ, despite the real historical trauma that comes with the last 500 years. But they also want to reclaim their traditional spiritual practices and the stories that shape them as members of particular people in a particular place - stories in which they also hear God speaking.  They want to incorporate these traditional ways, along with their Christian practices into a fuller expression of their unique identity as children of God as a way of healing themselves from the trauma of the past.

On this Noche Buena, I do believe we are waiting for the dawn of a new era, in which the gospel, even through all the static of domination, is still proclaiming the same hope, that is the deepest hope of the whole world.  The hope that all can be included.  It is not just the one's like us, the Judeo-Christian mother and father and their little child who are welcome, or the deserving poor mother and father and their little child - but it is exactly the radically different, the total stranger, the other mother and father and child that can find a home.  And it is not just about included them in our home on our terms.  It is about the creation of a totally new home, a new community, the first fruits of a new society that we build together as equals.  That we build together through the power of the Spirit that is working in all of us.

I was anticipating for two weeks being able to participate in the Mayan Fire Ceremony.  On the night of Dec 21, a large crowd of Guatemalans gathered in the Park around an inner circle of Mayan worship leaders, their clothing accented with the ropa typica of modern Mayans.  With sugar, they drew a circle and inside the circle a cross representing the center of the world and the four directions.  Then they stood around it and talked for some time with the main leader giving instructions.  Then they slowly began to build the altar.  They made four smaller circles in each section, then added various types of kindling and herbs.  Four tall candles, red, white, yellow, black, represented the four directions, and in the middle a green was for La Tierra, the earth, and Blue for El Cielo, the sky.  The directions also symbolized many other things. For example the white was also the wind, and at one point the leader also said it symbolized Senor Jesus Christo.  Lots more smaller, thicker candles were placed inside the circle, then lots of flowers matching the colors of the outside candles, red, yellow, white, and purple flowers with the black candle.  They lit the six tallest candles, and then there was more waiting and instructions given.  All the time a flute and drum were playing simple music. A bunch of well dressed dignitaries showed up, the Mayor of Quetzaltenango and his entourage.  They joined the circle around the altar.  A long speech greeted the dignitaries.  The leader talked about the hopes for the Mayan people and all people, about peace in the town and country and world. He talked about ending discrimination, bringing justice, reconciliation and the importance of valuing the Mayan culture, this ceremony and the role it had to play for the benefit of the larger society.  Then they lit all the other candles, and the group of Mayan worship leaders knelt down in a circle around the altar and began a series of prayers.  First the leader prayed toward each of the four directions.  Then others prayed. At each they would throw more small candles on to the growing blaze counting with each candle, recalling the days of Mayan calendar and their significance, invoking abuelos, grandparents, reciting a list of all the surrounding mountains, and calling on the heart of the sky and the heart of the earth to listen to them.  "Escuchame el Corazon del Cielo, Escuchame el Corazon de la Tierra."

As we too wait this night for a new beginning, a new birth, let us too join our voices with those who gathered united in a circle around the growing blaze of the Spirit contained in all things.  Let us call upon the Heart of the Earth and Sky to hear our voices as well, to welcome us home as well, along with all the weary pilgrims searching for a new home this night.  "Escuchame el Corazon del Cielo, Escuchame el Corazon de La Tierra." And let us hear the welcome given to all, given to us as well,  "Entren Santos Peregrinos."