CELEBRATION OF MINISTRY SERMON Isaiah 58: 6-12, Luke 4:14-30 Penticton, B.C. May 29, 2011

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1 CELEBRATION OF MINISTRY SERMON Isaiah 58: 6-12, Luke 4:14-30 Penticton, B.C. May 29, 2011 It can be a tricky business, finding the right title for a sermon. If I were going for the basics, I d probably entitle this sermon, Faithful, Public Witness, or perhaps, Celebration of Ministry. If I were feeling Scriptural, it could be Then your light shall dawn, the theme text of Conference; or, The Spirit of the Lord Is upon Me, thinking of the gospel reading we just heard, and the song we just sang. On the other hand, sometimes you want a catchy title, so people will perk up a little maybe going for a musical theme Light My Fire, or Candle in the Wind, all very Spirit based, since Pentecost is just around the corner. Mind you, a friend of mine said that if I could just figure out how to get the word Canucks into the title my worries would be over. Ahhh, he was right wasn t he. But sometimes the name simply announces itself, almost like a woman holding her newborn baby and knowing intuitively what her name was. So as I took a good look at the sermon on the page well the title ended up being a little weird; A Handful of Poems Looking for a Sermon. Right so I really mean it when I say, will you pray with me. O Holy One, help us be open to the touch of your Spirit, so that the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts might truly be graced by you, in and through the love of Jesus Christ. Amen. So, let me get right down to it, and invite the first poem up here onto the stage, Doing Nothing, by Dan Gerber: When I passed him, near the bus stop on Union Square, while the cops cuffed his hands behind his back, while he said, I didn t do anything, I didn t, either, do anything but look away,

2 2 a little afraid they might cuff me if I paid too much attention and walked on still wondering what he might ve done and still more about what I might ve done. I think Isaiah would have had a hay day with this poem, striding up here on stage, eyes flashing, asking each one of us where we fit in this poem. Are we with those who get cuffed, the hungry, the naked, the hurting, the oppressed? Are we standing with those who do the cuffing? Or are we just looking away, walking on? Isaiah would have more questions, like How s your social analysis? Do you know who s getting cuffed these days? If not, what about spending some time at First United in the Downtown Eastside, or The Open Door over in Victoria, or in the back lanes of Trail, Nanaimo, Kelowna or Prince Rupert? And have you checked out who ends up in prison these days? Maybe you d be surprised to find so many people who are mentally ill, or addicted; people with learning disabilities, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; too many First Nations people; people who are poor. Do you know any of their names? They are your kin, are they not? That s what Isaiah would say. And then he would start asking about the cuffers You United Church people you re nice; I ll bet you let your institutions do your cuffing for you, no? A dash of NIMBY mixed well with some tight zoning regulations; some handy bylaws that prevent loitering, begging and even the occasional tent city; gated communities now there s a concept. Isaiah just might mention Tasers and the lowest minimum wage in the country and Residential Schools with generations of fall-out; and how do you think he would greet the news that our government is all set to build bigger and better prisons and more of them, too? Then there would be that final question when Isaiah seems to be looking at each one of us, and asking, And what about the times when you ve looked away, chosen not to see, not to understand, times when you have walked on indifferent, scared, overwhelmed a little bit afraid that if you paid too much attention, well, hard to know what would happen maybe you d get converted, and then, maybe, cuffed. Isaiah would have a lot to say about any celebration of ministry; he would say that ministry needs to include a lot of truth-telling, even if it sometimes feels like a two-edged

3 3 sword; ministry needs to bear witness to the suffering of this world. Which will probably move into confession and maybe apology; repentance and change. It s wake-up call ministry, an invitation to think about what you might do next time, even if you re a little afraid. But wait there s another poem that s wanting to be heard. It begins with real edgy truth, but then follows up with a promise The Low Road by Marge Piercy: What can they do to you? Whatever they want. They can set you up, they can bust you, they can break your fingers, they can burn your brain with electricity, blur you with drugs till you can t walk, can t remember, they can take your child, wall up your lover. They can do anything you can t stop them from doing. How can you stop them? Alone, you can fight, you can refuse, you can take what revenge you can but they roll over you. But two people fighting back to back can cut through a mob, a snake-dancing file can break a cordon Two people can keep each other sane, can give support, conviction, love, massage, hope, sex. Three people are a delegation, a committee, a wedge. With four you can play bridge and start an organization. With six you can rent a whole house, eat pie for dinner with no seconds, and hold a fund-raising party. A dozen make a demonstration. A hundred fill a hall. A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter. It goes on one at a time. It starts when you care

4 4 to act; it starts when you do it again after they said no. It starts when you say WE and know who you mean, and each day you mean one more. Somehow this poem becomes an invitation for Jesus to come up on this stage; and when he waves, you can see the holes in his hands. And he would say, That Marge Piercy, with all that busting, breaking, burning, blurring, it sounds like she was well acquainted with the Roman Empire, with soldiers and legions, swords, whips and scourges, nails and crosses; mind you, there s not that much difference between one empire and the next, except perhaps the technology. And I discovered, said Jesus, that trouble can happen in your own home town, be it Nazareth, Campbell River, New West, Kerrisdale, Smithers; all that A prophet is not honoured in his own home town stuff, it s true. And we would remember with him, what happened in Nazareth when he gave his first sermon, really laying out what he was all about: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor, release to the captive, sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed. And he would remind us that any vision of ministry needs to include a whole lot of resistance; it commits itself to an alternative vision of how life might be lived with compassion, justice, freedom. And you need to stick with this even when people get upset, in those times when good news becomes too unsettling; too challenging; too demanding; when it includes too much truthtelling and asks for too much change. But then we would remember how Jesus pushed back, and challenged the people of his home town, to see how intercultural God s vision truly is. Jesus deliberately pointed out how healing came to Namaan the Syrian, how food came to the widow of Zarapheth in Sidon two absolute outsiders wrong colour, race, ethnicity, religion; the ones who are different. And here s Jesus challenging us to feel a grace big enough to embrace precisely the person we would have the hardest time embracing ourselves. It was enough to drive the good people of Nazareth into major cuffing activity, into the stuff Marge Piercy was talking about they can stone you, throw you over the cliff, drive you out of town.

5 5 But then, strangely and wonderfully, Jesus would smile and say, Remember though, this is not a solo act. Because, two people can give love; three are a wedge. Didn t Jesus say, When two or three are gathered, I am there.? Four, an organization; six, fund-raising; twelve a demonstration and how many for a congregation, a church? And Jesus would ask, Why do you think I started inviting others to join with me Peter, and the Samaritan woman at the well; Matthew, and Mary Magdalene; the rich young ruler; Martha; the other Mary, Judas, Thomas, Joanna, Cleopas on his way to Emmaus? And I wonder if he would look around today, and smile at the ten of you who are to be admitted, commissioned, ordained, recognized today; surely he would be inviting you to join with him you, Diane, Julie, Leanne, Julianna, Therese, Kimiko, LeAnn, Sunni, Brenda, Lori; and just as surely he would be inviting each one of us. He s talking about a ministry of community, of two, three, six, twelve, a hundred, a thousand; a ministry of partnership and alliances ecumenical, interfaith, with the spiritual but not religious; anywhere the Spirit is moving, where you recognize the energy of God in whatever it is that happens between people, maybe between everything for that matter, but especially, for us, the love that is interconnection, relational. And maybe Jesus would talk about the long-haul, the step by faithful step kind of journey, where it goes on one at a time; it starts when you care to act, no matter what they say; it starts when you can say we, and know who you mean, and each day you mean one more. Meanwhile, there s another poem clamouring to be heard, though it s only asking to be on the edge of the stage, a poem called, He needs you, from that amazing German theologian and poet, Dorothy Soelle, from her book, Revolutionary Patience I mean, even the name, eh? But here it is. He needs you that s all there is to it. Without you he s left hanging goes up in Dachau s smoke is sugar and spice in the baker s hands gets revalued in the next stock market crash. He s consumed and blown away, used up, without you. Help him -- that s what faith is.

6 6 He can t bring it about, his kingdom; couldn t then, couldn t later, can t now; not at any rate without you -- and that is his irresistible appeal. The whole time line by line the poem is pointing to Jesus. He needs us without us, well, where is the body, here and now, in this place, in this time? Ah but it is here, because of the irresistible appeal of the man, of the vision, of the Spirit. What this feels like, is an invitation into partnership with Christ as disciple, follower, feet and hands of as friend. We re not alone in this -- it s not only up to me, although it is also up to me; and it s not only up to all of us together, although it is that; but ultimately it s about a partnership with the Holy, with Divine Energy. (Sorry, Gretta Vosper.) And then Jesus and Isaiah would look at each other you didn t think Isaiah had left the stage now, did you? I mean, after all Isaiah has the longest book in the Bible, all sixty seven chapters of it. Besides, Jesus borrowed a lot of Isaiah s words they are kindred spirits. And they would walk towards each other, and join hands, and then they would say, Hey, all of you, you need to hear some other poems. And Isaiah would say, Your light shall break forth like the dawn; oh your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. And Jesus would nod, and say softly, What came into being in me is life, and the life is the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it. And as they linked arms, Isaiah would say, You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail, and God will satisfy your needs in parched places. And Jesus would smile, and say Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. And then he would talk about the mustard seed that falls upon good soil, and, well-watered, springs up, and grows, until, spreading its branches it embraces the birds of the world, and the water and the singing are one. And Isaiah would day, Dream of a time when all the hungry will be fed. It can happen; it will happen. And Jesus would say Amen and all are invited to this feast -- the cuffed and the cuffers, the look-aways and the walk-aways; the poor and the lame, the leper, the sinner and every one of you here today.

7 7 And the two of them, Isaiah and Jesus, they are looking out, and they see our faces, hopeful, wondering, hungry for good news; believing, some doubting, others halfbelieving, fifty-one/forty-nine. And the two of them would say softly, Be not afraid, for God is with you. And this is the Lord s work. Didn t you hear, it is the Spirit of the Holy One that is upon us, upon you. That s what makes this all possible. This is not another burden, another get out there and fix the world but rather, it s a promise of Spiritpower. So, when the church budget goes into the red and the pews are two-thirds empty; when the vision seems impossible and the work seems endless; when the wine runs out, when your hearts are cracked open, then turn to the Light, to the Water, to the Bread, to the Christ, to the Spirit. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men and women shall see visions; and your elders shall dream dreams, even upon your slaves, upon the cuffed, the cuffers and the walk-aways, I will pour out my Spirit. And why not now? Isaiah and Jesus might say. Why not open ourselves to the Spirit.. why not stand come, stand now; and lay hands upon each other, on arm and shoulder; a ritual that stretches back thousands of years, hands of blessing, hands of ordination, hands of healing, hands of prayer. And as we hold and bless each other, as we open ourselves to this Spirit, look another little poem has slipped out of our Hymn Book, and we can sing together, Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me; Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me; Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me; Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, move among us all, Make us one in heart and mind, make us one in love; Humble, caring, selfless, sharing Spirit of the living God, fill our lives with love. May it be so. Amen.