Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] April 24, 2022 “Water is Alive” Acts 5: 27-32 – Common English Bible The apostles were brought before the council where the high priest confronted them: 28 “In no uncertain terms, we demanded that you not teach in this name. And look at you! You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. And you are determined to hold us responsible for this man’s death.” 29 Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than humans! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God has exalted Jesus to his right side as leader and savior so that he could enable Israel to change its heart and life and to find forgiveness for sins. 32 We are witnesses of such things, as is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” Let me give you a little context for this short passage, clearly plucked out of the middle of a larger story. This happened shortly after Pentecost, so we’ve just jumped from Easter to Pentecost to the post-Holy Spirit developing early church. OK. So, it’s been a few months since Jesus was executed and both Rome and the religious authorities are annoyed and perturbed. Probably a little scared, too. They had hoped their violent public demonstration of crucifixion would have ended his movement. It had worked before. But the followers of Jesus claimed that he had been raised from the dead and now those followers were going around preaching and healing. It’s said that people dragged their loved ones out onto the streets on stretchers just hoping that the shadow of an apostle passing by would heal their loved ones. It was working! Their numbers were growing daily. All of this provoked the Chief Priest and Sadducees to arrest the apostles. They were put in jail, perhaps for disturbing the peace or any number of other laws. The next day the Chief Priest summoned the whole High Council together and told the jailers to bring the prisoners in front of them. But when the police went to collect them, the jail was empty – the guards were still posted and the cells were still locked, but according to the story, during the night, an angel had let them out. The apostles were back at the Temple preaching and healing, doing the same things that had gotten them thrown in jail in the first place. So, the police went to arrest them again, but did so “gently” so as not to cause a riot. That’s when today’s story begins. Clearly frustrated, they asked, “Didn’t we give you strict orders not to teach in Jesus’ name?” Peter and the apostles agreed, but answered, “It’s necessary to obey God rather than man.” Can’t you just see steam coming out of the ears of the authorities – straight out of Bugs Bunny. And then the story continues, “When the Council heard that, they were furious and wanted to kill them on the spot.” But Gamaliel, one of the most respected and beloved of all of them, asked for the men to be taken out of the room. He told his fellow councilors, “Be careful what we do to them. Remember Theudas? It wasn’t long ago that he made a splash and got 400 people to join him. He was killed, his followers dispersed, and nothing came of it. And remember Judas the Galilean? He appeared, acquired a following, and then fizzled out – his people scattered to the four winds. So, I’m telling you. Leave these men alone. If what they’re doing is merely human, it will fall apart. But if it is of God, there’s nothing we can do. And we better not be found fighting against God.” The Council agreed. So, the apostles were called back in. They were given a thorough whipping and warned: “Don’t you dare speak in the name of Jesus again!” The apostles walked away overjoyed for the honor of being dishonored. And back they went, every day in the Temple and people’s homes, teaching and preaching Jesus Christ, never letting up for even a minute. Of course, such disobedience could not stand. Things escalated and it’s not long after that we begin hearing stories of Christian martyrs. Stephen was the first. Killed by stoning. The authorities couldn’t think of anything else to do but keep killing them. Which only attracted more attention and continued to add to the movement – including those of us sitting here today. In today’s reading it says: “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, and yet here you are.” The apostles responded, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” Archbishop Oscar Romero, now Saint Oscar Romero, was assassinated for urging members of the police and military to disobey the violent and repressive military dictatorship of El Salvador. Preaching on the radio just days before his assassination in 1980, he pleaded, “The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters. When you hear a man telling you to kill, remember God’s words, thou shalt not kill. No soldier is obligated to obey a law contrary to the law of God. In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people, I beseech you, I implore you; in the name of God I command you to stop the repression.” This exhortation to stop killing their own people was the last straw. The right-wing government which had already killed plenty of other priests and nuns and thousands of others made sure Romero was assassinated shortly after, right in the middle of saying mass in a hospital chapel. “Men of violence could not accept that a man of peace should ask people to stop killing.”[1] So, what is “God’s law” that we are to obey? It’s a just law. And a “just law is one that upholds human dignity and is directed at the common good.”[2] For St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, laws that fail to do so are unjust and improper. Furthermore, they argue, an unjust law is not binding upon Christian consciences. Movements for civil rights or justice invoke this basic Christian tradition of challenging unjust laws and structures. Right along with Jesus who broke the law when he healed a man on the Sabbath. Or when Jesus intervened on behalf of a woman caught in adultery. The “legal” punishment for her was death. This Earth Day I think of LaDonna Brave Bull Allard and the water protectors on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. LaDonna was the historic preservation officer for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. When she heard the news, she alerted people to the impending plans for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline which would transport oil from North Dakota to Illinois through their reservation and under Lake Oahe, part of the Missouri River. The pipeline was originally supposed to pass near Bismarck but concern was raised over contaminating their drinking water. So, it was moved south to reservation land, with apparently no similar regard for their drinking water or other concerns raised by the tribe. But for the tribe, their alarm was for much more than drinking water. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Water is life.” It’s an expression that arises from the relationship water protectors have with water – not just to drink but for use in ceremonies and the important role of water in their belief systems. Not only is water life and necessary for living, it is alive. It is our relative and therefore must be treated with respect. The term “water protector” differs from other environmental activists. It grows out of indigenous communities in North America whose philosophy and approach is rooted in a cultural perspective that sees water and land as sacred. As such, the reasons for protection are more holistic and integrated than most modern forms of environmental activism, based more in seeing water as a commodity. And historically, water protectors have been led by or composed of women, because “as water provides life, so do women.” So, at a meeting in LaDonna’s basement about what to do, someone suggested they should start a resistance camp. LaDonna said, “Hey, I’ve got some land,” and thus began the Sacred Stone Camp at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers that soon filled with water protectors from around the globe. This camp and other camps that developed inspired people to gather from more tribes in one place than at any time in more than 100 years. These resistance camps were rooted in ceremonies that included singing songs to water, offering tobacco to water, and praying to the water. They were united by their desire to protect their relative. To which the collaboration of state and industry threw every weapon in their arsenal to destroy. They brought in personnel and equipment from over 75 law enforcement agencies, armed with sound cannons, concussion grenades, armored vehicles, and riot gear. 2016 was a long summer of conflicts. Things escalated when construction workers bulldozed a section of privately-owned land which the tribe had claimed as sacred ground. In September, security workers used attack dogs on demonstrators, which bit at least six people and one horse, reminiscent of Bull Connor’s dogs in 1960s Birmingham. In October, militarized police in tanks cleared an encampment situated on the proposed path of the pipeline. In November, in freezing weather, police used water cannons on protesters for hours, consequently drawing even more significant media attention and led to increasing national and global support for the protests. But industry had the law on their side, with laws often paid for by commercial interests. The water protectors wouldn’t necessarily say they had “God” on their side but they were breaking the law on behalf of the earth itself. As we know, not all laws are just. While Martin Luther King, Jr. sat in jail for disturbing the peace, he reminded the world, “We should never forget that everything Adolph Hitler did was “legal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Again, “a just law is one that upholds human dignity and is directed at the common good.”[3] And laws that fail to do so are unjust and improper. Perhaps we should ask, what is the motivation of any law? For example, what was the motivation behind the orders of the High Council for the apostles to stop teaching? And what are the motivations behind laws that restrict handing out food and water to people in line to vote? What are the motivations behind laws that refuse to teach the history of enslaved people? What are the motivations behind laws forbidding the use of the word gay in public school? As followers of Jesus, these are appropriate questions, for when it says in today’s reading, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, and yet here you are,” we have to wonder what the apostles meant when they responded, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” What did they mean? How about this? Anything less than disobedience on behalf of human dignity and the common good would betray our heritage and calling as Christians. Now, talking about obeying God vs. human authority is ripe for demagogues to proclaim their “truth” about God. Yet, is it any less true? If we believed that water is alive, what else could we do but stand with its relatives? As Christians we have a special relationship with water. Of just two sacraments, baptism, water is a vessel of the Holy Spirit. It is through the water of Mary's womb that Jesus was born. Is water a commodity? Or is it the reason we have life? [1] Kellogg Institute for International Studies, introduction of Archbishop Oscar Romero [2] Meghan J. Clark, Why the Christian call to justice supersedes the legal order,” USCatholic.org [3] Meghan J. Clark, Why the Christian call to justice supersedes the legal order,” USCatholic.org
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