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Sunday March 23,
2003, 3rd Sunday of Lent
Exodus 20:1-19, Matthew 5:1-9
Continuing Testament - “Harmony”
If there is light
in the soul, there will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty
in the person, there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony
in the house, there will be order in the nation.
If there is order
in the nation, there will be peace in the world. Chinese Proverb
Only twice in my recent pastoral life can I remember having prepared
a sermon (as homiletics professors strongly suggest) well in advance
of Sunday morning. The first was occasioned by Randy and me having
been offered a half-a-weekend away at a state park resort in Ohio.
My husband suggested that we might be able to enjoy our time off
a lot more if I wouldn’t wait until the last minute to finish my
sermon, so the whole thing was typed and ready to go by Wednesday!
We savored about 36 hours of peace until we turned on the evening
news to see Rodney King being beaten by police officers and scenes
of Los Angeles neighborhoods erupting in violence.
“I’m sorry, Randy” I said tearfully, “but I just have to write another
sermon for Sunday. The other one isn’t going to work.” He nodded
glumly, “I knew it was too good to be true.”
The second time was last week. We were on vacation in Florida with
family, and I did my homework on the beach, reading through material
for our Lenten series on difficult issues Christians face in daily
life. The theme for today was supposed to be “Money, the last Christian
taboo.” I was nearly finished with it as we left to come back, only
to arrive home and hear that the war with Iraq had begun. I’m beginning
to think that God is trying to tell me something - “Don’t plan too
far ahead. You’ll only have to rewrite it!”
Wrestling with difficult moral issues is a fitting activity for Lent.
These are the 40 days we remember Jesus battling with Satan in the
wilderness, dedicating himself to God’s service in the world, honing
his spiritual metal. It’s an important time for us to wrestle with
our own demons and discern how we’ll serve God. Talking about money,
how we use it and how we feel about it, is something I still plan
to do. But world events demand that you and I look at another tough
issue today.
Our vacation coincided with tensions over Iraq coming to a head. Days
before we left, members of the Adult Education class discussed the
possibility of our church making a public statement about the impending
war. All 3 of our denominations, locally and nationally, have come
out against the use of violence and war to resolve this dispute.
Mark Canfield, our Adult Ed. coordinator, offered to draft a proposal
for the March Church Board meeting as a way of getting the ball
rolling. I was feeling anxious
about being absent for the
discussion of such an important issue. I was also feeling responsible
for not having offered more courageous pastoral leadership in addressing
this earlier. Quite honestly I’d hoped that plans for a war would
be seen as absurd and extreme, and that the issue would die a well-deserved
death, allowing more thoughtful alternatives to come to the fore.
2)
I prayed that the voices of millions of pastors, politicians, peace
activists and ordinary citizens would prompt Saddam Hussein’s compliance
with UN man dates and prevent a US led military invasion. Sadly,
that hasn’t happened. Instead we’ve become global voyeurs, watching
network newscasters in armored tanks roll through the desert in
real-time, observing from a safe distance not only the destruction
of Saddam Hussein’s monuments to himself and his agencies of terror,
but also the destruction of innocent lives, ours and theirs, and
decimation of communities throughout Iraq. The nightly air-raids
seem like a ghastly version of “Survivor” and obscene phrases like
“precision bombing”, “human shields” and “collateral damage” are
part of casual conversation.
Would making a statement change any of that? It might not directly
influence Mr. Bush and his advisors. But it would challenge us to
ask ourselves, “Is this what God created us to be? Is this the way
we live out the Judeo-Christian heritage we say we value?” Missing
in too many debates, even among some Christian churches, is a willingness
to wrestle with the basic tenets of our faith tradition. There’s
no way around it. Jesus said that violence is unacceptable. He never
said anything about homosexuality or abortion but he was very explicit
about violence; “Those who live by the sword die by the sword.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers.” Don’t confuse anger and violence. Jesus got angry; at corrupt religious/political
leaders, at injustice, at those who abused others. He got angry
but he didn’t use violence.( You might wonder, “What about that
time he turned over the tables in the temple?” Yes, that’s an example
of Jesus’ anger. But did his anger turn to violence? Did he beat
up the money-changers? No.) Violence
is cathartic but it’s not constructive. It feels great for a little
while but then it feeds on itself, creating a never-ending cycle
of retribution. You know this if you’re a parent. One kid grabs
a toy so the other one grabs it back and adds a little shove for
good measure. The first one feels justified in pulling hair and
punching, and pretty soon all hell breaks loose! It’s the human
condition in a nutshell, the sandbox version of international politics.
“Thou shalt not kill,” “Love your enemies,” “Blessed are the peacemakers…”
These are the words that come from the scriptures to address conflicts
small and large.
They’re the lessons we teach our children but they’re difficult to
hear in the midst of
grown-up wars. However, we dismiss them as impractical at our peril!
If we are going to take our faith in God and in Jesus seriously
we cannot practice “cafeteria Christianity,” picking and choosing passages which are comfortable for us, the
ones we want to hear.
Jesus’ whole message goes counter to our culture and our nature! The
words recorded in Matthew’s Beatitudes are a perfect example; this
isn’t life as usual. It’s not life on human terms. Centuries before
these words were recorded Moses
received God’s law, setting the tone for a new way of living. God’s
people were commanded to live way, to live differently from the
folks around them. And if they forgot, the prophets reminded them.
Men like Isaiah, Amos and Jeremiah were the “loyal opposition”;
cajoling, warning even threatening anybody who stepped out of line! Obey God and life was good. Follow
your own rules and you’d get a public tongue-lashing or a plague
upon your house!
3)
Prophets are honored… when they’re safely dead and buried. They always
look better in the rear-view mirror. But face to face their words
are tough to hear. The prophetic voices weren’t and still aren’t
well received. Look what happened to Jesus when he told the “faithful”
to practice what they preached. Look what happens to those who suggest
that this war might be unjust - they’re called unpatriotic. Listen
to protesters suggest keeping young, talented women and men out
of the line of fire and alive for more constructive purposes, accused
of not supporting our troops.
Am I mixing religion and politics? Yes. But so did Jesus. He was always
concerned about what was going on in the world around him and how
larger issues affected human beings and their situations. The violence
of war costs lives and resources that, when used wisely, can feed
the hungry, cure disease, educate future generations…
Perhaps organized Christianity has moved too far way from Jesus. Perhaps
we’ve become too much a part of the culture. Will faithful people
stay silent for fear of offending someone, fearful that our members
will leave and take their pledges elsewhere? Will we abdicate responsibility
for speaking for peace in a time of war because polls say it’s unpopular? I hope not. More people have left the church
because church people have refused to stand for their beliefs.
This congregation has a long, rich history of having the courage to
live faithfully, to take stands for civil rights, to welcome people
of all sexual orientations, to work for a just world and a healthy
environment. From the United Church of Christ we receive a legacy
of commitment to justice. From the Disciples of Christ (Christian
Church) we ground ourselves in service to God’s people and the Church
of the Brethren challenges s to continue to be a peace church.
Our congregation also has a rich history of living together despite
great diversity. We’re a community of many colors, nationalities,
backgrounds and political expressions. We have Republicans, Democrats
and GDIs! We have responsible people who work for government agencies
and dedicated people who are peace activists. We have agreed to
disagree… but friends, how we disagree is of the utmost importance.
Betty and I are committed, as your pastors, to creating a place
where everyone is treated with love and respect, because we believe
this is what God intends. If we allow our disagreements cause us
to treat each other with hostility or contempt, we’re simply falling
prey to the same violent spirit that creates war. World peace, as
the ancient Chinese proverb says, begins with light in the soul,
in the life of compassion in each of us, and then grows.
How will we live what we believe? That question isn’t easy to answer.
But it’s not supposed to be. Ultimately we’ll each answer for ourselves.
The reassurance is that God will be with us as we wrestle with the
question and search for answers, that Jesus will feed us at his
table with food for the journey, and that the spirit of wisdom and
hope will guide us as we strive to build the world God intends.
Please click any
of the following links to view the other Sermons:
Anger
Harmony
Godmom
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