Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] December 24, 2019 - Christmas Eve “Misfits Rule!” Luke 6: 17-31 – New Revised Standard Version (Note: order of verses altered in the form of a litany) 17 Jesus came down with a great multitude of people and stood on a level place. 20 Then he looked up them and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. 25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. 27 “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who hurt you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. I invited some friends to join us here tonight. Do you know who they are? There’s:
You know the song: When all the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names, They never let poor Rudolph, join in any reindeer games. All of my friends have been the object of ridicule. Laughed at.
I knew Hermy’s struggles because I was the boy who liked to play music instead of play football. I could relate when Hermy and Rudolph sang together: We’re not daffy and dilly. Seems to us kinda silly that we don’t fit in. We’re a couple of misfits. What’s the matter with misfits? That’s where we fit in. Have you ever felt like a misfit? Excluded. But haven’t we all felt like we’re unwanted in some way? Bullies are good at finding that one thing about which we have some insecurity and making it a big deal – through taunts and tweets. They shine a light on what makes us different and try to make us feel bad about ourselves. But Jesus had something to say about people who do that:
Jesus has some pretty strong words in the Gospel of Luke:
An upside-down world turned right-side up. Jesus called that the Kingdom of God. A world where misfits rule! His birth rejoices in misfit-ness. Because did you know, the characters at the manger were misfits too? Let’s look: Jesus was born among cows and donkeys and sheep because his family was excluded from the inn. Who else? Shepherds. Shepherds were a very smelly, rowdy bunch, not usually welcome in polite society. And yet, the angels told good news to the shepherds, not the supposedly important people. One example of those blessings and woes. Upside-down to right-side up. Who else was at the manger? Joseph the dreamer. Joseph, not only believed in dreams, he followed them. Even if it could bring him ridicule. Misfits are often very, very brave. What would his friends have said behind his back? Joseph could have easily dismissed Mary when he discovered that she was pregnant, but instead he took responsibility for a child not his own. But then, of course, there is Mary. The bravest of them all. She was open and willing to do anything God asked, even though God had an absolutely ridiculous and terrifying idea for her. Yet, Mary actually believed that she had a part to play to change the world. From upside-down to right-side up, so that the poor and hungry and those who are sad now will one day laugh and be full. There’s one more character that doesn’t show up in the manger, but who is a very important part of the story. In those days there was a very paranoid king named Herod – a frightened little man who took pleasure in cruelty. He was so afraid that someone might plot against him that, after Jesus was born, he ordered the death of all the boys under the age of two in and around Bethlehem. This bully forced Mary, Joseph and the baby to flee to Egypt, to live for several years as refugees. Thank God the Egyptians let this family cross the border. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have Christmas! And how did King Herod learn about Mary’s child? The last of our friends at the manger. Zoroastrian astrologers, maybe three. These were people who literally walked around with their heads in the stars, but these misfits wise enough – misfits usually are very wise – not to spill any secrets to the paranoid king. But, back to Mary. Again, Mary believed that she had a part to play to change the world and turn it from upside-down to right side-up, so that the poor and hungry and those who are sad now will one day laugh and be full. To me, that means Mary believed the Kingdom of God ultimately belongs to the misfits. She believed in that day when:
But here’s my final thought: The misfit toys were not satisfied with knowing that someone loved them. They weren’t looking for an island to keep them safe from cruelty or a special place of honor. They didn’t need to be wanted as much as they wanted to fill a need. I would like that for us too. But that means we have to embrace our misfit-ness, not fear it. Your unique and perhaps unusual strengths can be a force for good to turn our upside-down world right side-up – a world where it’s no longer acceptable to be cruel to refugees and people who are hungry. Or anyone else. In a world where misfits rule, people are open-minded, they include everybody, are fair to everybody, and everyone acts with kindness and caring. You know that when our hands are turned upside down, we can use them to shoo people away. But when our hands up turned right-side up, we can offer love to one another. Would you do it with me?
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Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] December 22, 2019 “Missing from the Manger” Matthew 1: 18-25 – Common English Bible This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph her husband was a righteous man. Because he didn’t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly. 20 As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 Now all of this took place so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled: 23 Look! A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, And they will call him, Emmanuel. (Emmanuel means “God with us.”) 24 When Joseph woke up, he did just as an angel from God commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he didn’t have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son. Joseph called him Jesus. “When he descended into his mother’s womb, a great immeasurable light more radiant than even the light of the gods shone forth into the world. And even in the dark and gloomy spaces between the worlds, where the light of our moon and sun cannot reach, as powerful and majestic as they may be, even there, that light did shine.” Who is that talking about? It’s the birth of the Buddha. When I was in Sri Lanka earlier this year, I perused titles in the book store at one of the many temples I visited. One book title, in particular, caught my eye. Jesus and the Buddha: A Study of Their Commonalities and Contrasts.[1] One notable commonality is that their followers both describe their births as miraculous and as light coming into the world – the Buddha born 500 years before Jesus. Another commonality is that there is no one single story about their births. As you probably already know, of the four gospels, only two describe the birth of Jesus. And those two have quite different details. For example, in Matthew, “wise men from the East,” or The Magi, or Zoroastrian astrologers followed the light of a star they had seen at its rising. When it stopped over the place where the child lay, “they were overwhelmed with joy” and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In Luke, a passage you can probably recite from memory, “In that region there were shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. Suddenly there was with them a multitude of the heavenly host.” In other words, light shined so brilliantly in the shadows of the pasture that night, it became bright as day. Eight days later, when Jesus was presented for purification in the Temple, Simeon declared that the baby was a “light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” The story of the birth of the Buddha:[2] Queen Maya dreamt that a pure white elephant entered the room where she was sleeping. The elephant carried a large lotus flower in its trunk and gave it to the Queen. The very moment when the Queen took the flower, though still a virgin, she conceived, and the room was filled with a heavenly light. Trees at once began to bloom with new flowers of every color. When she awoke, she told the King. They consulted the 64 royal counselors about the meaning of the dream. The chief counselor told them she would be pregnant with a boy who will either become the King after his father or a great teacher who will teach the people of many countries to know what they now do not understand. Before the Queen was to give birth, she traveled to the city of her parents. Along the way, the royal procession stopped at a beautiful park. Queen Maya got down out of her royal chair and walked under the trees and through the flowers. As she walked, the baby was born – not through the birth canal but from her right side. Without the pain of childbirth. Trees bent down to provide privacy and four angels appeared, holding the four corners of a golden net. The baby was laid into it as if a cradle. The angels said, “Be joyful, O Lady. A mighty son is born to you.” The baby stood and looked around in all four directions. He took seven steps and with each step a lotus flower rose up. And then he lay down and fell asleep like any other baby. When they returned home, a hermit who lived nearby came to the palace to see the baby. He stood and paid homage to the child and proclaimed he would grow up to be a great man. Some of the similarities are so specific it’s almost funny. Neither Joseph nor the King seem particularly necessary. There are descriptions of angels, a cradle, animals, and words like someone paying “homage” to the child because “a mighty son is born to you.” And of course, there are differences. Especially that Jesus was born of unmarried peasants and the Buddha was born of a royal family, although he ultimately rejected that life and gave up all earthly possessions. As I read earlier, upon the Buddha’s birth, light shined into the darkness. But, the author of the book Jesus and the Buddha said, “the story was never meant to suggest that an actual light appeared when the Buddha was born. It was a way of saying that the advent of the Buddha would enable beings to become aware of each other” – to see each other – thereby making empathy and understanding more possible. That is a similar sentiment to what scholars like Marcus Borg have said about the birth stories of Jesus. They may not be factual in an historical sense, but, Borg said, they are profoundly true. Was Jesus born at Mary and Joseph’s house where they already lived in Bethlehem or did a census require a very pregnant Mary to travel from Nazareth and give birth in a cow stall behind an inn with no rooms? Were shepherds watching their flocks by night or did wise men travel from the East? Or maybe something else entirely different. Were they chased to Egypt to live as refugees because a paranoid, tyrannical king threatened to kill the baby? Maybe yes and maybe no. Something can be true that didn’t happen. It can still be very real. Did the Buddha stand and walk upon his birth? Did Queen Maya really have no pain in childbirth? But faith isn’t about facts. Faith is about meaning. Making sense of the world. And then, from that, how we live. Impacting our choices, priorities, values, morals, and ethics. Or so one hopes… The Sri Lankan author of the book I referenced has been a monk for more than 40 years but was raised a Christian as a boy. He argues for mutual respect between the two religions, but he calls for more honesty about their real differences and even contradictions. Some authors, he claims, are too eager to harmonize the two into something like one religion, which, he said, only negates them both. It’s like saying you are colorblind. That means you don’t see the beautiful and distinct differences. While Jesus and the Buddha were both loving and compassionate and peaceful, they seek different ends. However, Christians and Buddhists do agree that the births of their respective founders were miraculous in a way that brought light into the world. And that their lives revealed something of how to live in and through darkness. The Buddha through enlightenment. Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah who proclaimed, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.” Today I want to focus on an often-overlooked detail of the birth of Jesus. Joseph. Overlooked so much so that one year at the annual children’s Christmas pageant, the boy who was to play Joseph got sick at the last minute. Instead of recruiting a new Joseph from among the shepherds and wise men, the director decided, “We don’t need him. He doesn’t do anything anyway.” But Joseph does do something important. Foremost, he decided not to abandon Mary publicly. Either Mary would have been killed, as the law prescribed, or at the very least, she would have been disowned by her family and left to scratch out whatever living she could, feeding herself and her illegitimate child on whatever she could beg or steal. So, Joseph considered dismissing her privately to spare her reputation and/or her life. But imagine for Joseph. It must have been a very dark night of the soul as he agonized about his decision. Matthew described Joseph as a “righteous man.” We may hear the word righteous and think that means “self-righteous.” Or “holier than thou.” But I like Scott Hoezee’s (ho-Zay) description that a righteous person is anyone who lets their actions do the talking. The opposite of “all talk, no action,” a righteous person has no need to say what they’re doing or why because their actions say it all. And in that way, Joseph was indeed a righteous man. People no doubt talked behind his back, wondering whether Mary and Joseph had been engaged in some pre-marital hanky panky or whether he was sticking with a woman who had been unfaithful to him. But Joseph didn’t say anything to anyone. He just did the right thing – even though the right thing could be judged as the wrong thing by some very self-righteous people. And how did Joseph know what was right? Did you catch it? Joseph finally knew what to do when he fell asleep. He could finally hear when he couldn’t argue with himself anymore. That’s when an angel told him, “Don’t be afraid to marry her.” Now, did that literally happen? Or perhaps better, is it a true story? But, if not true, then for sure, it is real. Because this is what’s real: Joseph had absolutely nothing to do with creating the mess that confronted him.[3] And because of that, Joseph had every reason to walk away in search of a simpler, easier life. A more conventional wife. But he didn’t. A righteous person won’t complain that he or she didn’t cause the chaos. They will simply go and do what needs to be done. But more importantly, he decided God was in that mess. How often do we think, we’ll finally find God, we’ll finally have time for God, when all of our messes are finally cleaned up? Have you ever thought that all the mess and chaos of your life is an obstacle? But the mess was the necessary condition for the Messiah to be born. For God to give birth to the holy and for light to break forth. Not to take anything away from Mary, but Joseph must not be overlooked. He must not go missing from the manger or in Christmas pageants because this story might not have happened. We need him for it to be true. Because he helps to make it real for us. Because one day you too may find yourself presented with circumstances you didn’t choose, wouldn’t choose. And ask yourself, “How did I get here?” You may want nothing more than to divorce yourself from everything you see around you, from whatever your life has become. But that is the time, when we are tired enough, worn out enough, weak enough, disgusted enough, that we can finally hear the whisper of an angel saying, “Do not fear. For God is with you.” This may be a dark time in your life right now. Ironically, the holidays sometimes bring out the worst of our feelings of loss and grief. In addition, of course, we are living through some of the very darkest days of our nation ever, feeling like it’s going to take a very long time to clean up a mess we didn’t create. But not to fear. These are exactly the kinds of times God chooses. That is, when we are finally tired enough, worn out enough, weak enough, disgusted enough to hear the whisper of an angel: “Do not be afraid. God is with us in this mess.” It’s not an obstacle. As God has done before, God will use this time, chooses this time, to bring light into the darkest places of our world and our lives. As was said of the Buddha, “And even in the dark and gloomy spaces between the worlds, where the light of our moon and sun cannot reach, as powerful and majestic as they may be, even there, that light did shine.” For any religion that brings light into the world during our darkest days, that doesn’t try to take advantage of the darkness, I give thanks. For any religion that offers hope, peace, joy, and today, love, do you give thanks? [1] Bhante S. Dhammika, Jesus and the Buddha: A Study of Their Commonalities and Contrasts. Published by the Buddhist Cultural Centre in Dehiwala, Sri Lanka, 2018. To obtain a copy, visit www.buddhistcc.com [2] There are common elements among the stories. This version combines what is in the book and other details found at https://www.danielharper.org/blog/?p=1888 [3] This idea came from Martin Copenhaver Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] December 8, 2019 “When Nothing is Wrong, Nothing Can Be Made Right” Isaiah 35: 1-10 – Common English Bible The desert and the dry land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus. 2 They will burst into bloom, and rejoice with joy and singing. They will receive the glory of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the Lord’s glory, the splendor of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and support the unsteady knees. 4 Say to those who are panicking: “Be strong! Don’t fear! Here’s your God, coming with vengeance; with divine retribution God will come to save you.” 5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be cleared. 6 Then the lame will leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing. Waters will spring up in the desert, and streams in the wilderness. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground, fountains of water. The jackals’ habitat, a pasture; grass will become reeds and rushes. 8 A highway will be there. It will be called The Holy Way. The unclean won’t travel on it, but it will be for those walking on that way. Even fools won’t get lost on it; 9 no lion will be there, and no predator will go up on it. None of these will be there; only the redeemed will walk on it. 10 The Lord’s ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. Happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and groaning will flee away. Once upon a time there was a very greedy king who had lots and lots of gold. Gold covered every surface of his palace, but he wanted even more. The king called all his soldiers together and told them to attack the neighboring kingdom. He told them, “We need that gold so we can sell it to feed our own hungry countrymen.” So, off to battle, swords and shields lifted high. But the soldiers were not gone long before they began returning – not one of them carrying a sword or a shield. “What happened!” demanded the king. “I told you to go fight a battle and bring back that gold!” One soldier replied, “We were on our way when we came across an apple tree and the tree spoke to us. It said: ‘Be wise and lay down your shields. Let the truth be your sword and study war no more.’ It seemed to us that the tree made sense. So, we did what it said.” The king was furious and vowed to get rid of the tree that had ruined his plans. He waited until midnight and then walked to the field until he came upon the apple tree. The king took out his axe and chopped down the tree. But he was still so mad that he stomped on the fallen tree until it was crushed down into the earth. Satisfied, the king walked back to his castle with a smile on his face. The next day the king called his soldiers back to the courtyard. He told them the kingdom was at risk of attack by their neighbors. “We have to take their gold so they can’t attack us.” He gave them new swords and shields and told them to obey his orders to attack the neighboring kingdom. The soldiers went, but not long after, they started returning without their swords and shields. The king was furious. He shouted, “I told you to go fight a battle and bring back that gold!” “We were on our way,” said one of the soldiers, “but when we came to the spot where we saw the apple tree yesterday, you wouldn’t believe it. There are twenty apple trees there today. And the trees all said the same thing: ‘Be wise and lay down your shields. Let the truth be your sword and study war no more.’ “And the trees made sense to us, so we did what they said.” The king was red with anger. “Those blasted trees!” he thought. That night he went out from his castle and chopped down every last one. But afterward he was still so mad that he jumped up and down on them until they were completely crushed into the earth. The next day the king called all the soldiers to the courtyard and gave them new swords and new shields and ordered them once again to attack the neighboring kingdom. This time, instead of telling them that their fellow citizens were hungry, or that the kingdom was at risk of attack, he told them that they stole the gold from us first, so we have to get it back. “It’s about our honor. Do not come back until you have carried out my orders.” But the soldiers had not been gone long when they began returning without their swords and shields. The king screamed, “I told you to go to battle! Why do you keep disobeying me?!” “Well,” said one of the soldiers, “you wouldn’t believe it but in the same place where there were twenty apple trees yesterday there is now an entire forest of trees and they’re all saying—” The king didn’t wait to hear the rest. He just grabbed an axe and ran until he came upon a forest of trees that stretched as far as the eye could see. The king let out an exasperated scream because he knew there was no way he could chop down so many trees. He finally calmed down and muttered, “Can it be that a powerful king like me can be stopped by a few trees!” “Are you asking me?” The king was startled by the voice. An old woman with long gray hair stepped out from behind the trees. “Well ok,” said the king. “If you have an answer, tell me.” She agreed with him. “It seems to me that you are a very powerful king.” “You bet I am!” he said, standing up straight, tall and proud. “And, since you are so powerful, you can take down any tree that offends you and chop it into little pieces and crush it into the ground.” “You bet I can,” he replied. “But,” the woman said, “apple trees speak truth. You may be a powerful king, but there is no one on earth more powerful than the truth, for truth crushed to the earth shall rise again.”[1] That’s a line from poet William Cullen Bryant: “Truth, crush’d to earth, shall rise again. Heed not the shaft by hatred cast, the foul and hissing bolt of scorn; for with the right shall dwell at last, the vict’ry of endurance born.”[2] Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted this line in a speech from the steps of the Alabama state capitol after Bloody Sunday and the long delayed but finally successful march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.[3] Listen to a few excerpts: “Last Sunday, more than 8,000 of us started on a mighty walk from Selma. We have walked through desolate valleys and across the trying hills. We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. Some of our faces are burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. Some have literally slept in the mud. We have been drenched by the rains.” “They told us we wouldn’t get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, but all the world knows that we are here, and we stand before the forces of power saying, ‘We ain’t goin’ let nobody turn us around.’” I was struck by Dr. King’s description of the road to Montgomery. Desolate valleys. Trying hills. Rocky byways. Not like the vision of Isaiah’s road to Zion. By contrast, “The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. There are no broad highways that lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions. But we must keep going.” And here it is: “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society that can live with its conscience, a [nation] at peace with itself.”[4] He said, “I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take? How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her throne? When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme? When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night? How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?” Aren’t those questions we are still asking today? Aren’t those questions we are especially asking today, with truth on trial in Congress? What is truth? At the end of April, the president had racked up 10,000 false or misleading claims during his term in office.[5] That was the same week he lied to Sean Hannity 45 times during a 45-minute interview.[6] To be fair, those are not 10,000 unique lies. Every time a lie is repeated, it is counted again. So, one lie repeated 190 times counts for 190 lies. By October, the count had been raised to more than 13,000. I don’t like euphemisms such as “false claims” or “inaccuracies.” These are nothing but assaults on facts and reality. Deliberate. As Peter Wehner wrote in The Atlantic magazine, the president is “not simply a serial liar; he is attempting to murder the very idea of truth.”[7] Remember his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars: “What you’re seeing is not what’s happening.”[8] As Dr. King said, “I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take? How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her throne? How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?” His answer? “How long? Not long.” Because the Bible says, “you shall reap what you sow.” How long, not long, because “no lie can live forever.” Dr. King then quoted William Cullen Bryant. Because “truth crushed to earth shall rise again.” In my opening story about the petulant king, when he angrily chopped down the apple trees and trampled them into the ground, that only produced more trees in their place. Fortunately, in the last few months, truth crushed into the ground by our petulant president has produced new trees too: civil servants and military officers and professors of constitutional law rising up from the ground in increasing numbers to tell truth.[9] Why is truth so important? Rev. Daniel Smith said, “No truth means no accountability. No accountability means no justice. No justice means no healing, no mercy, no peace. No truth means no grace for any of us to face and accept our human failings.”[10] Why is truth so important? Because without it, we will not be at peace with ourselves. And the nation cannot be at peace with itself. Why is truth so important? Because when nothing is wrong, nothing can be made right. Our Thursday Noodles and Company lunch crowd was in no mood for our text from Isaiah today. Instead of finding it inspiring, many reacted negatively. This is unrealistic, they said. This is just flowery language. It’s not real. They were in no mood for optimism. I get it. These are times for healthy skepticism. So, then, what were the times like for those to whom the Prophet Isaiah was speaking? It sounds like Isaiah is encouraging the exiles. Exiles are forced from their land, taken from their homes and all that is familiar, now living as captives in the land Babylon. The chapter before today’s reading, chapter 34, speaks of absolute desolation. A vivid description of a place full of screech owls, crows, hyenas, and snakes. A dwelling for jackals with streams dried up into sulfur dust. A frightening dystopian world. But chapter 35 is a beautiful hope-filled vision. The prophet proclaims that one day you will return to Zion, to Jerusalem, on a highway through the desert so broad that not even fools will get lost. He speaks of the desert in glorious bloom. Burning sand that has become springs of water. But here’s something weird. These texts were written long after they were already home. They were back in Jerusalem. I’m not sure their way back to Zion was full of people singing and everlasting joy shining upon their heads. If it was, that was long ago, and their lives now were one big disappointment. Their Temple still lay in ruin. Why prophesy something in the future that has already happened? Or rather, did not happen. All that flowery imagery was just as unrealistic as our crowd at Noodles and Company felt about the text in our times. And why not? If they weren’t in the mood for optimism either, why should we? We have lost trust in institutions that once held us together. Many times, for good reason. For example, when religious leaders protect sexual predators instead of vulnerable children and adults, what is left of their integrity? When we read posts on social media, are they from real people or Russian trolls? When police unions protect their own instead of people of color, what happens to truth? No truth means no accountability. No accountability means no justice. No justice means no healing, no mercy, no peace, no grace. When nothing is wrong, nothing can be made right. But what about the lies we tell? Privilege can only be maintained on a series of lies we accept as true. That somehow we have any right to be on the land we stand upon today. That after Dr. King proclaimed a dream, it actually came true. That people of color or migrants or people who are poor actually fared better than they do now. The lie that everything used to be better and that the current administration is an abnormality. And yet there can be no doubt, these are particularly egregious and terrible times. I was struck by the vision of Dr. King from his speech of a society that “can live with its conscience.” What an image. And he wasn’t describing a world no longer at war but a nation at peace with itself. What a beautiful prophetic vision. Impossible? But here’s my truth: I may grieve this time we live in, I may be perpetually angry, but we are people of faith. And with faith, we persist in difficult hope. I take inspiration from the words of Paul to Christians who feared death before Jesus came again. He told the Thessalonians, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others who have no hope.”[11] Sometimes this is taken to mean, “You are not allowed to grieve because you’re supposed to have hope.” But grief and hope are not opposites. I grieve and I have hope. That’s why, year after year, we keep lighting these Advent candles. To proclaim: “Truth, crush’d to earth, shall rise again. Heed not the shaft by hatred cast, the foul and hissing bolt of scorn; for with the right shall dwell at last, the vict’ry of endurance born.” Ah, yes. Endurance. Through this time that we grieve 13,000 lies and counting, the key is endurance. And instead of losing faith, Paul tells the Romans that “endurance produces character, and character produces… hope.”[12] So my question is: Though we may grieve, will you endure with me the beautiful – and difficult – hope of a society with a conscience, the vision of a nation at peace with itself? When that which is very wrong, is made right. [1] https://www.uua.org/worship/words/story/truth-crushed-down Adapted from a story by Christopher Buice [2] https://hymnary.org/text/truth_crushed_to_earth_shall_rise_again [3] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/our-god-marching [4] In the actual speech, the order is reversed [5] https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/ [6] https://theweek.com/speedreads/838161/trump-made-45-false-misleading-claims-single-45minute-sean-hannity-interview [7] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/donald-trumps-sinister-assault-truth/591925/ [8] https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/25/politics/donald-trump-vfw-unreality/index.html [9] https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/11/15/bureaucrats-arent-joining-resistance-theyre-doing-their-jobs/ [10] https://www.firstchurchcambridge.org/media/the-truth-crushed-to-earth-is-rising [11] 1st Thessalonians 4:13 NRSV [12] Romans 5:4 |
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