Next to Normal Binkley Baptist Church Isaiah 58:6-12; Luke 4:16-21 Paul Lindsay - 14 September 2014

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Gilbert Harmon
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1 Next to Normal Binkley Baptist Church Isaiah 58:6-12; Luke 4:16-21 Paul Lindsay - 14 September 2014 Two seasons ago, a remarkable play was performed at the Deep Dish Theater. It was called Next to Normal. It's a musical play--there are very few spoken words; almost all the words are sung to music. When the play was on Broadway it won several Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize. It's about a middle class American family. As the play unfolds, we learn that one of the parents is seriously mentally ill. We meet a restless teen age daughter, struggling with relationships and issues of adolescence. We learn that, years earlier, the family had lost a young child. The characters are very real; the play is brutally honest. The writers of Next to Normal aimed to portray accurately one form of mental illness and treatments for it. So the play makes a real contribution to our understanding of mental illness. Beyond that, the play has profound human and spiritual significance. There is conflict, anger, compassion, sadness, joy, humor, forgiveness, laughter and tears--universal themes. This is reality. This family could be any of our families. Near the end of the play, the mother says to her daughter: "We tried to give you a normal life. I realize now that I have no clue what that is." Her daughter answers, in song: I don't need a life that's normal-- That's way too far away. But something... Next to normal Would be okay.... something next to normal-- That's the thing I'd like to try. Close enough to normal To get by. There is no happy Hollywood ending. But the play ends with the mother, father, daughter and their psychiatrist singing together a song called "Light," which affirms healing and transformation. Day after day, Give me clouds, and rain, and gray. Give me pain if that's what's real It's the price we pay to feel. The price of love is loss But still we pay We love anyway.... There will be light. When we open up our lives, Sons and daughters, husbands, wives-- And fight that fight, There will be light... There will be light 1

2 Compare these words with those of the prophet Isaiah, who says in chapter 58:... Your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly... Your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday In this passage, from what scholars call Second Isaiah, the prophet was speaking to refugees, the people of Israel who had just suffered fifty years of exile in Babylonia. Now king Cyrus of Persia, who has conquered Babylonia, will allow the Jewish refugees to return to their homeland. Isaiah refers to the year of Jubilee, from the ancient rule in Leviticus. The rule says that every fifty years, farmers who lost their land and were forced into indentured servitude can leave their captivity and regain their freedom and their land. Isaiah applies this idea to his own time. The people lost their land and were forced to be refugees. Now, after fifty years, they can return to their ancestral home. They can rebuild their houses and towns, using the old ruins as the foundations. Refugees, homelessness, affordable housing--it sounds like the world today. Five centuries later, Jesus went into the synagogue and stood up and read from this same part of Isaiah, telling the people that this is happening again in his own time: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people. And Jesus adds, "This passage of scripture has come true today..." Jesus is making clear what his life and work are all about. He says the world will be healed and transformed-- the social order will be turned upside down. The people are surprised at first, asking "Isn't he the son of Joseph?" Later they become offended, and they drag him out of town and threaten to push him over a cliff. Isaiah and Jesus are speaking about the community and the nation--while the play Next to Normal is about a family. At both levels, there is healing and transformation in the midst of suffering. There is light in the darkness. There are, however, no simple answers; no glossing over the reality of struggle and pain and loss. Life is difficult, even for people like most of us, with many resources. We face illness, death, loss of jobs, unwanted change. Life is more difficult for people who are poor, oppressed, or discriminated against. And life was unimaginably difficult for the vast majority of people in the times of Isaiah and Jesus. People cried out in prayer for help. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Karl Barth said that "to clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of resistance against the disorder of the world." We know things are not as they should be. We want a very different kind of world. Often, our first prayer is "Help me, help me, help me," as Anne Lamott has written. Later, she says, our prayer may be "Thank you, thank you, thank you" or even "Wow!" We do experience light in darkness. In fact, this is what God's presence means, according to Rabbi Michael Lerner. He suggests that we think of God as "the force of healing and transformation in the universe." When we baptize people at Binkley church, the minister often asks them two questions: Who have you chosen to follow as the teacher for your life? and, Who have you chosen to profess as the redeeming presence of God's love? 2

3 The answer, of course, is Jesus. I think most of us could give that answer. We may have problems with traditional church doctrines. We may have questions about suffering and evil, or about reconciling a scientific worldview with religious experience. But most of us can affirm Jesus as the teacher for our life and as a prime example of the redeeming presence of God's love. Last weekend, driving through the mountains of North Carolina, we passed a modest, small, wooden church building. In front was a large sign that said, "It's all about Jesus." It may be that low income people, struggling to survive, are more able to identify with Jesus than we are, surrounded by so much affluence. Jesus lived in a world just as real as portrayed in Next to Normal. He got angry and frustrated, he came to the point of despair. He prayed for help. At the same time he went about healing people; eating with untouchables, beggars, and prostitutes; challenging religious authority; sharply criticizing the inequality in his society. He was constantly praying and then returning to healing people and disturbing the peace. Prayer and action go together. For Jesus the spiritual and material are one. He preached and acted out a personal and social gospel. Jesus shared the dream of the prophets of Israel -- Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others-- that the unjust social order would be overturned, transformed into a just world, with peace and plenty for everyone. He quoted Isaiah: Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice... to let the oppressed go free, and Isaiah goes on to say: to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house.... then your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing will spring up quickly...if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday So what does all this mean for us today, as individuals and as a congregation, in the twenty-first century? And let's be real about it. As our former pastor Jim Pike often said, "Perfection is not an option." In this world there is no such thing as perfection. Often there is no such thing as normal. Next to normal is as close as we can get. When our son in law Randy was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer, our family was shocked and shaken and overwhelmed. Then a phone call came from a friend of Randy and ours, who offered to form a care team. I cannot tell you how relieved I felt. And for the next four months, this team, many of whom were Binkley members, took care of our needs and Randy's. When we celebrated his birthday at the cancer hospital, when Randy was baptized in the nursing home, when we celebrated communion by his bed in the nursing home--randy and we were surrounded by these caring friends. Ultimately, the cancer was not cured, but Randy and all of us had received much healing. The price of love is loss, but still we pay, we love anyway. There is much darkness and evil and hurting in the world. In the midst of that, I am convinced, there is a force of healing and transformation. 3

4 There is more than one way--in fact, countless ways--we as individuals follow Jesus as teacher and the expression of God's love. You do this already. In your day-to-day caring and responsible relationships with family and friends and coworkers. Raising children and caring for loved ones. Feeding the hungry at the shelter. Some of you are healers in your profession-- nurses, physical therapists, psychotherapists, doctors, social workers, teachers. Some of you serve in public office. Some of you enrich the lives of others with music. Many of you demonstrate by walking -- for food for hungry people, for awareness of mental illness, for gay rights, on Moral Mondays. Some of you even get arrested. In these and many other ways, we bring light in the darkness. As Mother Teresa said, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." How, then, do we follow Jesus as a congregation? Binkley Church, from the beginning, has been on the cutting edge of concern for social justice. In the late nineteen fifties, a small group of people sat down around a kitchen table and talked about starting a new church. After much discussion, they arrived at five basic principles: They would take the Bible seriously, but not literally. They would be ecumenical. They would foster a spirit of caring for each other in times of need They would express faith through social concerns, for the community and the world They would be racially inclusive With principles like that, it was clear this was not going to be a normal Southern Baptist Church. Think about what a radical step it was to be racially inclusive. The schools in Chapel Hill and Carrboro were segregated, as were the churches, restaurants, and movie theaters. Only a few years earlier UNC had admitted its first black students--3 students in the law school. The university cleared a whole floor in a dormitory, so that no white students would have to live near them. Bob Seymour and Dean Smith challenged the norms of the community by walking into the Pines Restaurant to have lunch with a black person, Jim Forbes, a summer intern at Binkley Church. Billy and Ann Barnes, with help from many others, worked to elect Howard Lee as mayor of Chapel Hill --the first black mayor in the South. In the 1970's we expanded our idea of inclusiveness. Women of the congregation pointed out that the language of worship often was exclusive and not respectful of women. Most translations of the Bible were still using exclusive male language. We were singing hymns like Rise Up, O Men of God. And words like, "Join hands, now, brothers of the faith; who serves my Father as a Son is surely kin to me." So we got a new hymnal. Some Bible translations were revised. We chose different words in worship. Inclusiveness was expanded to include gender as well as race. In the 1980's, Bob Seymour preached about discrimination and prejudice against gay men and lesbians. But I do not remember conversation about this in our congregation. Then in the early 90's, we were given the opportunity to face the issue openly, when a gay member asked to be licensed, as the first step toward ordination. There were many meetings about this, large and small, and many written statements and letters. At one of the meetings, after many comments, one member asked simply, "What would Jesus do?" We decided to license John Blevins, and in doing so we came out as a welcoming and affirming church. We expanded the idea of inclusiveness again. It was not long before we were told that we were no longer welcome in the Southern Baptist denomination. One of our young people called Binkley "the outcast Baptist church." 4

5 Two years ago, in a beautiful service in this sanctuary on a Saturday evening, we celebrated a reaffirmation of marriage vows. Gay and straight couples participated, with friends and families present. Binkley church was holding a demonstration, affirming that in this church we are committed to a moral law higher than the unjust civil law of this state. Our work in all these areas is not finished. As with individuals, so it is with a congregation--perfection is not an option. Even normal is often not an option. As we enter a time of transition, we need to think carefully about our priorities. We need to remember our founding principles and our history; and to keep working on our processes for conflict resolution. We need to address our financial sustainability; and to reach out to new people. And we need to remember whom we profess as the teacher for our lives. For us, it should be all about Jesus. Jesus, who stands in the tradition of the prophets. Share your bread with the hungry. Bring the homeless poor into your house. Set free the oppressed. I don't need to tell you what the problems of our community and the world are, and how serious, complex and difficult they are. As Martin Luther King said about race and civil rights, "We've come a long way, but we have a long, long, way to go." It is the same with discrimination on the basis of gender, social class, and sexual orientation. There are countless other peace and justice issues. "What would Jesus do? " is a good question to ask, as long as we remember who Jesus was, how he lived, what he taught; and that we need to live this out in the context of the twenty-first century. Jesus was a healer. And he wanted to change the world. Surely if Jesus were here he would be outraged by the news last week that two mentally challenged African American men were held for 30 years in North Carolina prisons, one on death row, for a crime they did not commit. Certainly Jesus would be angry that immigrants and other construction workers have been cheated for years from rightful income and benefits. He would be appalled by the extent of domestic violence and sexual assault. The list of things Jesus would be outraged about is long. One thing Jesus did was to demonstrate! To eat with untouchables, beggars and prostitutes was to offend most people's deeply held beliefs. To ride into Jerusalem like a messiah was to challenge the ruling class. To overturn tables in the temple was to challenge religious authority. Jesus knew what he was doing. He knew his actions would lead to trouble, possibly including his death on a cross. Perhaps the Cross is the best example of how the price of love is loss. But still we pay. We love anyway. Even if we are only next to normal. This love, this healing and transformation, is a force in the universe. Your light shall break forth like the dawn Your light shall rise in the darkness... There will be light When we open up our lives, Sons and daughters, husbands, wives-- And fight that fight, There will be light. There will be light Amen. 5

Behold the body and lifeblood of Christ. See who you are, & be what you receive.

Behold the body and lifeblood of Christ. See who you are, & be what you receive. 3 rd & 4 th Sundays of Ordinary Time C cycle, 2016 1 st Reading Isaiah 61:1-6 [The Spirit of the Lord is upon me] Responsorial Psalm 71 [You are my hope, O Lord] 2 nd Reading 1 Corinthians 12:12-13:13