SERMON. Hard Core Reality I Will Be There I Will Follow There. September 3, Rev. George Anastos

Transcription

1 SERMON Hard Core Reality I Will Be There I Will Follow There September 3, 2017 Rev. George Anastos

2 Sermon Part I Hard Core Reality The Reverend George Anastos [Twelve score and one] years ago our parents brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil [struggle], testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. 1 From the website altright.com, posted August 5, 2017: If you haven t heard yet, let me inform you that the largest ethno-nationalist rally of the 21st century is being planned for August 12th in Charlottesville, Virgin[i]a.... We are going to rally to defend White heritage in Charlottesville.... We have taken precautions. There are several self-defense units already organized, and... we will... break that pathetic little trust-fund anti- White faggot organization once and for all.... People will talk about Charlottesville as a turning point. 2 From the Reverend Brian McLaren, present at the march in Charlottesville, describing the white nationalists: Many wore helmets and carried hand-made shields. They looked like they came expecting to fight, threaten, and intimidate. Some came in paramilitary garb, heavily armed. They carried an assortment of flags... with a surprising number of Nazi flags. I m 61, and before this weekend, I ve never seen a single Nazi flag carried proudly in the United States. I saw many today. As has been widely reported, their chants included You will not replace us, Jews will not replace us. Their use of torches Friday night and slogans like blood and soil were clearly intended to evoke the KKK and Nazism. 3 From an interview last week with Justin Moore, the Grand Dragon for the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, wherein he is addressing what is to be done with immigrants in the United States: [We] re going to burn [them] out. When the journalist asked him how he planned to burn out 11 million immigrants, he responded: We killed 6 million Jews the last time. Eleven million is nothing. 4 From a member of the clergy at Charlottesville: [M]edia coverage has largely focused on the hateful vitriol spouted by white supremacists.... But among the many untold stories of the harrowing day is the account of hundreds of religious leaders who descended on Charlottesville to resist white supremacy. While images of prayerful resistance are often less eye-catching than bloody fists, spiritual protesters were still a crucial part of both the counter-protests and relief efforts. 5 From a white supremacist chat site: 1 The opening of Abraham Lincoln s Gettysburg Address, adapted Page 1 of 6

3 diversity [sic] always was america[,] if you consider blacks and Indians people, not property[,] but Jews are exacerbating the problem today. 6 We here highly resolve that... this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. 7 Scripture Reading Exodus 3:1-15 The Burning Bush Our first lesson this morning is from the book of Exodus, the third chapter, as translated by Everett Fox. Now Moshe was shepherding the flock of Yitro his father-in-law, priest of Midyan. He led the flock behind the wilderness and he came to the mountain of God, To Horev. And YHWH's messenger was seen by him in the flame of a fire out of the midst of the bush. He saw: here, the bush is burning with fire, and the bush is not consumed! Moshe said: Now let me turn aside that I may see this great sight why the bush does not burn up! When YHWH saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, he said: Moshe! Moshe! He said: Here I am. God said: Do not come near to here, put off your sandal from your foot, for the place on which you stand it is holy ground! And God said: I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Sarah and Avraham, the God of Rivka and Yitzhak, the God of Rahel and Yaakov. Moshe concealed his face, for he was afraid to gaze upon God. Now YHWH said: I have seen, yes, seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, their cry have I heard in the face of their slave-drivers; Indeed, I have known their sufferings! So I have come down to rescue it from the hand of Egypt, to bring it up from that land to a land, goodly and spacious, to a land flowing with milk and honey From the Gettysburg Address Page 2 of 6

4 So now, here, the cry of the Children of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. so now, go, for I send you to Pharaoh bring my people, the Children of Israel, out of Egypt! Moshe said to God: Who am I That I should go to Pharaoh, That I should bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt? God said: Indeed, I will be-there with you, and this is the sign for you that I myself have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will (all) serve God by this mountain. Moshe said to God: Here, I will come to the Children of Israel and I will say to them: The God of your ancestors has sent me to you, and they will say to me: What is God's name? what shall I say to them? God said to Moshe: EHYEH-ASHER-EHYEH/I Will be-there howsoever I will be-there. And God said: Thus you shall say to the Children of Israel: EHYEH/I-WILL-BE-THERE sends me to you. And God said further to Moshe: Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: YHWH, the God of your ancestors, the God of Avraham and Sarah, the God of Yitzhak and Rivka, the God of Yaakov and Rahel, sends me to you. Sermon Part II I Will Be There The Reverend George Anastos Text: So now, go, for I send you to Pharaoh bring my people, the Children of Israel, out of Egypt! When God called Moshe (Moses), Moshe had to face the most powerful ruler in the world a person who was ruler, not because he was a nice guy mind you, but because he eliminated any and all who opposed him. Moshe s reticence was a tad understandable. But that doesn t seem to matter to God who sends Moshe anyway. It would be nice if I could tell you that the call of Moshe is unique in this regard. But I can t, because it s not. If there is one common theme that runs through every biblical call story it is that all these people are put at risk. From Abraham to Joseph, from Moshe to Deborah to Elijah to Jonah, from Mary to Jesus Page 3 of 6

5 to Stephen to Paul, from Simone Weil to Detrich Bonhoeffer to Edith Cavell to Martin Luther King, Jr.: being called by God has an all-to-obvious common thread it means risk, it means danger, it means preaching repentance to restore humanity to God s image of Love. This is what Moshe was called to do; this is what Jesus was called to do; this is what Martin Luther King, Jr. was called to do: to speak of repentance to those who do not want to repent; to go and confront any abuse of power that denies God s image in any of God s children. Being called means facing risk. When I was still in grade school I saw an example of someone who was called to risk. It was my minister. The Civil Rights demonstrations were occurring in Birmingham and Selma. It was getting ugly as the peaceful marchers, led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were being assaulted and stoned. Then came the day that a white Unitarian minister was dragged from a bus and beaten to death. And that is when my minister, in a safe white suburb of Boston, was called to confront Pharaoh. He obeyed. As I mentioned earlier, the call of Moshe is not unique. Jesus called his disciples with the understanding that they each would be put at risk. In our next lesson we will hear a dynamic interpretation of today s Gospel lesson that may catch many of us up short. This was rendered by Clarence Jordan. He translated scripture for poor sharecroppers in the southern United States. In this interpretation, Jerusalem is referred to as Atlanta. The disciple Peter is Rock. Scripture Reading Matthew 16:21-28 Pick Up Your Cross and Follow From then on Leader Jesus began to make clear to his students that he had to go to Atlanta and to go through terrible things at the hands of the leading church people to be killed, and three days later to be raised! But Rock collared him and began to take him to task. "Not on your life, sir," he said, "Be dadblamed if this will ever happen to you." Jesus whirled on Rock and said, "Get away from here, you devil; you are gumming up the works for me, because you're not following God's ideas but human reasoning!" Jesus then said to his students, "If people want to walk my way, they must abandon self, accept lynching, and share my life. For those who aim to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives for my cause will find them. What is people's advantage if in getting the whole world they lose their lives? Indeed, what shall people trade in their lives for? Sermon Part III I Will Follow There The Reverend George Anastos The words of Virginia governor McAuliffe about the white supremacist protesters in Charlottesville: I can tell you this, 80% of them had semiautomatic weapons. You saw the militia walking down the street. You would have thought they were an army... I was just talking to the State Police; they had better equipment than our State Police had. 8 From the Reverend Lisa Sharon Harper, present at the march in Charlottesville: On Saturday, August 12, in Charlottesville, I was faced with a choice: Would I pick up my cross? Just before walking onto the street, organizers of the Charlottesville Clergy Call walked us through the changing dynamics of the situation. There would be four times more white nationalists in Charlottesville than previously projected. One quarter of the clergy they thought Page 4 of 6

6 would be there actually showed up. If we stepped onto the street we were risking arrest, injury or death.... We knew what we were walking into. We knew that we might not come back. I was hesitant and torn and almost didn t do it. I sat in silence and begged God for a definitive word. God spoke: Be present. That was the call: Be present; even if it means being present on your way to the cross. 9 If any would come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. If people want to walk my way, they must abandon self, accept lynching, and share my life. Pick up your cross. Accept lynching. That s tough stuff, isn t it? That verbal slap across the face when you heard the word lynching is exactly what it sounded like when Jesus said pick up your cross, because that is what crucifixion was in his day: a humiliating and terrifying execution. Jesus is clear about what it means to follow him. He is clear that following him on the Way could mean sacrifice. Jesus calls us to live as he lived, to love as he loved, if need be to die as he died, trusting that we will rise as he rose. The biblical stories we heard today of the call to confront Pharaoh and the call to pick up our crosses are part of the larger sacred master story that we tell piece by piece, week after week. These stories gradually shape our hearts and minds. When we are young in faith these stories seem daunting and unrealistic, holding us to a set of expectations that we really don t want to fulfill. But as we show up week after week, as we grow up week after week, as we age week after week, we find we are doing little things that are a little risky, a little edgy. We discover that we are not only beginning to own these sacred stories, they are beginning to own us. And we find that with each little thing we do we are being strengthened to take the next step further down the path of discipleship, until we eventually get to the place where we recognize the burning bushes God places in our path, and find within ourselves the steel and the resolve to face Pharaoh, knowing all the while that I-Will-Be-There is with us every step. For some of us, retirement is the time we take and stake our stand. So in the context of what we are doing here this morning, as we move now from these sacred stories to the central story of our faith the sacrificial death of Jesus of Nazareth, we are once again claiming a story as our own, and inviting it to own us. For it is in this sacred story that we are assured that God understands the risk of call. God understands what it means to be human and face the fears. God understands what it means to offer body and blood so that others might have life and have it more abundantly. This is why this is the most sacred rite for all Christians in all ages: it is participation in God s relentless, and risky, quest to save creation. It is from this table that we are called. It is from this table that we are sent. 9 Page 5 of 6

7 Our nation truly is, as Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg address, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil [struggle], testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. There is no sideline in this. We cannot standby and keep silent. It was Edmund Burke who once penned, The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. Doing nothing has its own deleterious consequences. Martin Niemöller was a prominent German Protestant pastor who, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for this quotation: First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Pastor Niemöller meant what he said literally. They did come for him, there was no one left to speak for him, and he spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. If any would come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Page 6 of 6