SERMON. Generation to Generation. November 12, The Reverend George Anastos

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1 SERMON Generation to Generation November 12, 2017 The Reverend George Anastos

2 I have come to the conclusion that God has a rich sense of humor. I know this because I, of all people, am a minister. Seriously. I was the kid who got thrown out of Sunday School. I was the kid who got thrown our of church summer camp. I was the kid who was not what you would call, well behaved. For example, there was the day when one of my Junior High School friends was having her Bat Mitzvah. Oh, this was a big deal. Amy had been spending weeks at the temple being instructed. On her big day, as she was reciting ancient Torah stories in Hebrew, my friends and I were a bit, shall we say, inappropriate. There was a line of about eight of us halfway back in the sanctuary listening to Amy. One of us, a Jew not a Gentile let it be noted, started chirping the refrain from a current Frito Lays commercial. More bite. More crisp. We all chirped in with the rest, Munch a bunch of Fritos corn chips. The Rabbi was not pleased. God watched. I ended up a minister. I remember thinking of this when I was attending Rabbi Rheins installation service in 2005 at Temple Sinai. At the meal beforehand, attended by hundreds of members of the congregation, Rabbi Rheins started going around the room and rousing them into singing songs in Hebrew. I looked at his wife Susan and asked, What are these songs everyone is singing? She replied, Oh, these are ancient Jewish songs that we all learn for our Bat/Bar Mitzvahs. I was fascinated, and I have to admit, jealous. Songs going back thousands of years. A corporate identity passed on from generation to generation. Remembering, and practicing in the present, the stories and wisdom of the past. I take as my text this morning verses 5-7 of Psalm 78: God established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which God commanded our ancestors to teach to their children; but keep the commandments. For the first time, on a profound level, watching and listening to a Jewish congregation at Rabbi Rheins installation, I understood the importance and the power of passing on story from generation to generation. Passing the stories on is part and parcel of Jewish culture and faith. When crossing the Jordan into Promised Land the people are admonished to tell their children these stories. When celebrating the Passover every year the Seder service has at its core the passing on of the stories to the next generation. From the Law to the Prophets to the Wisdom Literature, Jews are told over and over again to tell their stories. I got to thinking about this. As you know the first five books of the bible Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are known as the Pentateuch, or more commonly to Jews, Torah (T-O-R- A-H). It occurred to me that if ever a cinematographer wanted to make a move of those first five books its logical title would be Torah! Torah! Torah! Stories are so important. They weave us together in community, ground us in a common narrative, and give us the means to establish relationship. For example, a year ago I conducted a memorial service for church member Mac Fiske. His brother had flown in for the service and afterwards said to me, I loved that opening poem you read. At the memorial service for my dear friend Ken Fish.... I rudely Page 1 of 4

3 interrupted him. Ken Fish from Massachusetts? He said yes and tried to continue his story. I rudely interrupted him again, From Weston, Massachusetts? He frowned, said yes, and tried to continue his story. I rudely interrupted him again, And the service was held at the First Parish in Weston with the Rev. Tom Wintle officiating? He said, How do you know this? I explained that I attended that church as a small child and Ken Fish was my sixth grade Sunday School teacher. And it was Ken who taught me some of the great biblical stories in such a way that they are indelibly imprinted on my brain. (I got to be the king of Jericho in one of his skits.) Mr. Fiske gave me a very curious look and said, George Anastos. Were you that little brat who was always causing so much trouble? Yes, I said. And now you re a minister? Yes, I said, God has a great sense of humor. Fifty one years ago I learned the master stories of our faith from a man, and then my personal story intersected with of his best friend 2,000 away. The master stories of scripture I learned in church were woven with the stories of my own experience, creating a tapestry. Our master stories connect us. They can give us a common grounding, and help us weave relationship as our individual stories are woven in and among them. A national master story for many of us in the sanctuary is growing up American and being told the master stories of our country. Being raised in Massachusetts, at least back in the 1950s and 60s, was a fiercely patriotic thing. Every year in grade school there were the obligatory field trips to Plymouth Rock so we could see where the Pilgrims landed, and to the U.S.S. Constitution, Old Ironsides. We learned over and over again the story of the Boston Tea Party. Oh, and let s not forget Lexington and Concord! Every year in the spring someone in our class had to read Longfellow aloud, Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. It was bad enough that I had to hear it every year. My wife Andrea, who grew up in Lexington, was required to memorize it! Stories. As children we were told the stories of our nation over and over again. They gave us common grounding as Americans. We held a common heritage, owned a common story, pursued the common purpose in the Constitution of the United States. But something has happened. We are losing our common story. It is not being told as much and that has consequences. On the 4 th of July every year National Public Radio, in an act of patriotism and to celebrate our nation s birthday, reads aloud on the air one of our American master stories the Declaration of Independence. This year, at 148 characters a clip, for the first time they also tweeted the entire Declaration. And rage erupted. NPR was accused of spouting liberal political propaganda. They were accused of smearing our President. They were accused of being the very swamp that the President was elected to drain. They wanted to know who would write such seditious dreck. Then the detractors discovered that this was our nation s Declaration of Independence, and King George III of England was the target of the document s polemic. Things went quiet. When we don t know our common stories, we lose our grounding, and other stories will take their place. Here are some other stories from the past week: 26 people gunned down while sitting in a church in Texas a week ago this very moment. I had a bizarre sense of dislocation as I heard about this. It was last Sunday afternoon. I had gone to Y and football was on all the televisions. During the commercial breaks there would be Special Report segments, telling you that at the end of the game there would be Page 2 of 4

4 complete coverage of the church massacre. The vast majority of time that followed these Special Reports, there was a commercial for a movie: every one had people shooting pistols and assault rifles as others collapsed in dramatic death. Violent death is now a major thread of our national story, both for entertainment and for real. In church one Sunday after one of the horrific mass shootings in the past few years, Eric noted that as he was writing his sermon at Mellow Mushroom (this is its own master story about Eric) the TV was saying something about another mass shooting. He said at first he barely looked up at the news because this was so routine. Then he paid attention to what was happening in Newtown, Connecticut. Routine news coverage of routine mass shootings and routine massacres. This is now part of our national story. Another story from last week: a couple of white supremacists approached some people who were protesting the speech of a white nationalist. The supremacists started giving the Nazi salute while shouting at the protestors: Hail Hitler! Then one of them pulled a weapon and shot at them. This is not unique. Last week I again went to altright.com and read, As our Fuehrer teaches us in Mein Kampf... Wow. These are Americans doing this. This is now part of our national story. God established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which God commanded our ancestors to teach to their children; but keep the commandments (Psalm 78:5-7). The question before us, as a community of faith, is, How do we respond? What are the stories we will tell our children? Our master stories of faith are replete with guidance for a time such as ours. These master stories tell us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Turn the other cheek and walk the second mile. Welcome the stranger... always. Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Beat swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks so that nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. The Good Samaritan. Father, forgive them for they know not what to do. God is love. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. The wisdom of today s psalm, the wisdom of the Jewish tradition, is a good lesson for us today. We have to teach our children our stories. The banner from our parent denomination of the United Church of Christ that we have in front of the church right now proclaims the theme of our master stories: Be the Church: Protect the environment. Care for the poor. Forgive often. Reject racism. Fight for the powerless. Share earthly and spiritual resources. Embrace diversity. Love God. Enjoy this life. Page 3 of 4

5 Today the center is not holding as our nation, and even our religious landscape, becomes increasingly polarized. Today s reminder to tell the stories can help here. The point of the stories that we tell, in our families, of our nation, in our houses of worship, is to help us hold the center. People camped at opposite poles cannot meet. People camped at opposite poles cannot even hear one another. Yet we still have common stories, and we need to tell them over and over again. The point of the stories is to re-mind us of our common narratives, so that we can re-member who we are as a people, and gather at the center where we can learn from one another, be expanded by one another, and be United States of America both in our unity and our diversity. So how do we do this? One person at a time. One child at a time. We are approaching the holiday season that time when families gather from near and far. Many of you have told me that you are occasionally dreading these family gatherings because of strife caused by intense political and religious differences. So here is a possible approach. At Thanksgiving and Christmas this year: take out your family photo albums you know, the ones before digital cameras. The photos that you carefully selected to put in the albums are likely ones that tell stories. As a family go through the albums; tell the stories; remember your common ground. Reacquaint yourself with our national stories: read the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg address. Finally, come to church to hear and absorb our common stories of faith. These are the ones that will give us the foundational values to understand our families, our communities, our nation. Teach your children and your grandchildren the stories; but keep the commandments. Amen. Page 4 of 4

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