Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] November 18, 2018 “Outrage is Not a Way of Life” Psalm 100 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come into God’s presence with singing. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is God that made us, and we are God’s; we are the people and the sheep of God’s pasture. 4 Enter the gates with thanksgiving, and God’s courts with praise. Give thanks, bless God’s name. 5 For the Lord is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever, and faithfulness to all generations. Garrison Keillor tells the story about Larry, a resident of Lake Wobegon – you know, that place where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average. Larry had the all-time record for being saved at the Lutheran Church, a church that never gave altar calls and where an organ had never once played Just as I Am quietly in the background. Regardless of that, Larry Sorenson had come forward 12 times in 8 years, each time weeping buckets as he crumpled up at the communion rail. Each time it was a shock to the minister who had just delivered a dry sermon. The latest compared Jedidiah and Jehoshaphat. Or maybe it was Jerubabel. But at the end, Larry came forward crying. “Even the fundamentalists got tired of him,” said Keillor. God didn't mean for you to feel guilty all your life. There comes a time when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and grapple with the problems of the church furnace or the church roof. Larry was never grateful for a 2nd or 3rd or even 9th and 12th chance. He just kept on repenting and repenting and repenting.[1] For Larry, it was never enough. He wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t smart enough. Even in a town where all the men are good looking, he wasn’t even handsome enough. Never enough. In his new book, John Pavlovitz sounds like he’s worried that he isn’t thankful enough. He said, “Some days I think I’m gratitude-impaired. I have an appreciation-deficiency.”[2] Or, like Larry, maybe he’s not thankful enough. But, John said, “it’s just that I’m often so busy being outraged” by the news or the failing state of the planet that “I get preoccupied with being, well, outraged. In the course of an ordinary day, I frequently find myself so distracted” by disgust for what isn’t and what should be that “I forget to be grateful for what already is.” “It’s a common affliction for activists,” he said. Or just ordinary people who believe that things can, no, should, be better than this. That the world deserves, we deserve, better than this. In the face of so much discouraging news, it may feel as though if we aren’t out there every minute of every day trying to make a difference, the world may capitulate to the malevolent forces of cruelty, indecency, bigotry and pure unadulterated hate. It’s up to us or the forces of evil may win. But people who believe it all depends on them can be pretty unhappy people. And exhausting to be around because they can worry that others aren’t outraged enough. Of course, on the other hand, people who are happy all the time may annoy the heck out of us because how can they be so happy? They must not care enough. Don’t you know how bad things are? Kids still separated from their families. Not enough affordable housing. The town of Paradise, California, burned off the map because climate change is just a “hoax invented by the Chinese.”[3] How do you tell the families of the 500 or maybe even 1,000 people still missing to: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come into God’s presence with singing. 4 Enter God’s courts with praise. Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks… for God is good. But it’s not just the major events of the world that concern us. Some days we just don’t feel that way. Not to mention, who cares about Washington while we are dealing with failing relationships. And Alzheimer’s is advancing. And when our recovery from addiction is faltering. And cancer is spreading. And now come the holidays when many of us may feel pressure that people won’t think we’re being cheerful enough. We may think the author of Psalm 100 is just another one of those annoyingly, perpetually happy people. But you couldn’t say that about the prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk was no less grateful, but he also did not wear rose-colored glasses. The prophet described a bleak picture: “The fig trees have not blossomed; there are no grapes on the vines, the olive trees have failed, and the fields have yielded no food; the flocks of sheep have gone missing and there are no cattle in the stalls.”[4] That can only be described as an utter catastrophe. A very good reason to be depressed. Literally, “not enough.” And yet, after saying of all of that, he said, “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will exult in the God of my salvation.” Or as Eugene Peterson colorfully describes, “though my apples are full of worms, I’m turning cartwheels of joy for God.” Is he just deluded? Deceived? Has he been duped? No. He explained, I will rejoice through it all because God is my strength. And God is enough. Through it all. One of the challenges of our world is constantly being updated on the latest, and usually most outrageous, breaking story on social media, alerts on our phones, or on 24 hour cable news, which needs 24 hours a day of content, the worst the better. With all that instant and constantly streaming information, we can lose perspective. Everything loses perspective when it only lasts as long as the next news cycle. I don’t mean to demonize social media or cable news, it’s just that we have to practice a defense against its tendency toward sensationalized despair. Such a constant source of outrage could lead to an aggravated case of gratitude-deficiency or A.D.D.: Appreciation-Deficit Disorder. That doesn’t mean the treatment plan is choosing ignorance. The prescription isn’t to care a little less. That’s why I’m grateful for Habakkuk more than Psalm 100. He doesn’t sugar coat things. In the face of trees without figs and vines without grapes, when we’re losing or everything we had is gone, Habakkuk offers these insights.[5] I think they are really relevant for our times.
All those may be true, but they’re not all easy to practice. Yet, hopeful examples abound. In the category of injustice like a boomerang, remember Danica Roehm? I have mentioned her before. She is the transgender woman elected a year ago to the Virginia legislature, defeating the man who wrote the infamous “bathroom bill” meant to demonize transgender people.[6] I’m grateful for the boomerang of injustice rebounding on the unjust. God is good. Well, she is joined this year by Ruth Buffalo who just became the first Native American woman elected to the North Dakota Legislature. She unseated the main sponsor of the very voter ID law meant to disenfranchise Native Americans, who by the way, turned out in massive numbers. In Sioux County, where the Standing Rock Indian Reservation is, turnout was up 105 percent from the last midterm elections.[7] And she wasn’t elected from a reservation, but from the middle of Fargo. I’m grateful for the boomerang of injustice rebounding on the unjust. God is good. And then there is Zach Wahls in Iowa. He became famous in 2011 when he testified in front of the Iowa State Legislature against their proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. At the time, he was the teenaged son of two moms. He testified that having lesbian parents meant that some of his classmates were forbidden to socialize with him. He was teased and bullied because of his parent’s relationship but he turned that into quite an impressive resume including as the co-founder of Scouts for Equality which worked to overturn the ban on gay boy scouts and scout leaders. Well, he was just elected to that same Iowa legislature that targeted his family.[8] Not to mention, an actual lesbian mom was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota, defeating a man who compared gay people to rapists. Forget Blue Wave, there was a Rainbow Wave all across the country.[9] God is good. And works in mysterious ways. Ruth Buffalo did not go out and run against the man who tried to disenfranchise Native Americans. She didn’t even know that he was the one responsible until she won. God is good? I’m grateful that history is bigger than this present moment. And, that malevolence shall not forever win. But most especially, I am grateful that none of us have guarantees of happiness. Because more importantly, we have the promise that through our pain and struggle and grief, God keeps us strong. Therefore, Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come into God’s presence with singing. 4 Enter God’s courts with praise. Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks… for God is good. Outrage can be a great motivator to change the world, but it can’t be a way of life. Gratitude is a way of life that seeks the same outcome. John Pavlovitz claims that “all movements of justice, equality, and diversity are led by thankful people because they see something worth preserving or someone worth defending.” And the more we practice a gratitude way of life, the more alive we will feel. And hopeful, because hope is cultivated in the fields of gratitude. And in turn, the more alive we feel, the more we see each other and not just ourselves, “the more prepared we are to live outwardly, making us more available to people who are suffering, not less available.” God is good. Pavlovitz said, “Grateful people are the boldest activists and the most self-less advocates because they are the fiercest lovers of life.” That’s who I want to be. I want to change the world not because I’m outraged by it but because I’m grateful for it. I want to, but it may take some practice. How about you? Let’s try just one example: take a news story which makes you feel outraged. Find one thing in it for which to be grateful. At first, try to do it once a day. And then maybe once an hour. Until every outrageous thing you hear has within it a reason to be grateful. Until outrage is no longer a way of life but gratitude is. It’s not a means to avoid injustice or stop caring so much but instead a way to change the world that changes us too. [1] Garrison Keillor, Leaving Home [2] John Pavlovitz, Hope and Other Super Powers, Simon and Schuster, 2018. John will be speaking at Park Hill UCC on May 14, 2019 [3] https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/ [4] Habakkuk 3:17 [5] Richard Losch, All the People in the Bible [6] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/08/danica-roem-virginia-first-transgender-person-elected-state-legislature [7] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/us/politics/north-dakota-ruth-buffalo.html [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Wahls [9]https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lgbtq-midterm-elections_us_5be29707e4b0dbe871a49ea0
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