Watching the agony and despair, the well- placed protests and the misplaced violence of the last week

Transcription

1 Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church Asheville, North Carolina 7 December 2014 Second Sunday of Advent Sermon: A World Good and Beautiful and Kind Mark Ramsey Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark 1:1-8 In the 1930 s in the middle of a world breaking down and lashing out - - Langston Hughes penned a little poem that began: I am so tired of waiting, Aren t you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? Watching the agony and despair, the well- placed protests and the misplaced violence of the last week Feeling ALL the fear and breathlessness Feeling again such a wounding division in our society - - rich from poor, - - black from white, - - those in control and out of control - - brought back into cringing focus this last week on a day when our examination of the fruit of the Spirit brings us to the word PEACE I am so tired of waiting, Aren t you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? If you had lived in the last half of first century Galilee you d be in the middle of a war. Some radical Jews have revolted against Rome, and Jerusalem is under siege. Reports are that conditions in the city are bad. People are divided. Everyone is anxious, caught between resentment of heavy- handed soldiers and fear of extremist guerrillas.

2 2 The world is in turmoil. Where do you look for the future? Your village is mixed- - Jews and Gentiles- - and tensions are high. Neighbors fear one another. Families fracture along ethnic lines. One small sect refuses to fight on either side, followers of a Galilean rabbi named Jesus, who was crucified for insurrection forty years before. You are intrigued by their claim that Jesus' crucifixion is a symbol of God's "good news." The world is fractured. Where do you look for any REAL PEACE? Someone hands you a scroll with a title scribbled on it, "The Beginning of the Good News about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God." 1 And before you turn the scroll more than a couple inches, you hear this MESSENGER, a VOICE crying in the wilderness Prepare the way of the Lord! Make God s paths straight! The late, great Tryon- born, jazz, blues and R&B singer Nina Simone used to perform to some of the most eclectic audiences anyone could gather. Inevitably, in her concerts, Nina Simone would say to the assembled, right before performing the gospel song "Children, Go Where I Send You": "Y'all ever been to a revival meeting? You don't know what I'm talking about, do ya? Well, you in one now." Mark s Gospel begins by putting us down in the middle of a revival. NOT a revival of old time religion or nostalgia THIS is a REVIVAL of our whole lives The REVIVAL comes from this strange prophet/preacher named John who appeared in the wilderness to help usher in God s peace and God s justice, and God s hope.

3 3 A REVIVAL is not just restoration or recovery. REVIVAL takes something crooked, something BENT - - and makes it STRAIGHT. Today there is a lot of OUR lives where things are bent. OUR world is bent. What does it look like to make God s path straight? What are the things that make for PEACE? It s starts as a WAIL of despair from those who are saying: I am so tired of waiting, Aren t you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? In Isaiah s time, that s what they were crying, and so the prophet gave them the promise of God: Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. God will feed God s flock like a shepherd; God will gather the lambs in God s arms, and carry them in God s bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. Isaiah gives us two quite different, even conflicting, images for God. God has a mighty arm and can do what no human being can, namely lift up, make low, level the uneven, make plain the rough places. But God is ALSO the gentle, nurturing shepherd whose love knows no limit or bounds. There s been a temptation in the church, for centuries, to speak of God in two distinctive ways - - there s the God who is mighty and strong, - - AND then, there is the God who is tender and loving, carefully protecting the sheep. But NOTHING in life comes at us in such neat, lined out categories.

4 4 God is God all in all. God's thirst for freedom and justice is always loving. God's love is always un- coerced and free. God's mighty arm is NOT that of an arbitrary tyrant but that of a gentle shepherd who carries her flock in her bosom. God s gentle nurture is indeed mighty, and God s might is her gentle nurture. 2 Just so: when we speak of PEACE - - that is peace the way we yearn for in our lives: we seek peace of mind, we seek to be at peace with our neighbors - - but that PEACE CANNOT be separated from a PEACE for our world, rooted in JUSTICE for all, nurtured by FREEDOM for ALL. In God s economy, wanting peace of mind after a restless night of worry is INSEPARABLE from wanting PEACE so that no child ever lies dead in a street with a wailing mother rushing to his side. And so John appeared, quoting Isaiah, seeking to usher in the Prince of Peace. And John begins by speaking REALITY, which the church calls REPENTANCE John is not into shallow happy- talk. Knowing REALITY is essential to unbending our BENT world On Black Friday, Diana Butler Bass wrote: I watched a reporter interview a woman at a mall, who had arrived early for the sales. He asked, What are you going to buy? The woman, clearly not a well- off person, responded: Shoes. He said, Shoes? You re not supposed to be buying shoes! She said, But I need shoes. He pressed the issue, Are you buying anything else? No, she replied. I need new shoes. The reporter didn t know what to say.

5 5 The reporter wanted a story of frenzy and manufactured merriment and consumption NOT a story of gripping, basic human need. And that is the morality tale of Black Friday. Amidst riots over flat- screen TVs there are people shopping on Black Friday because they can t afford shoes... 3 We need to be able to recognize when things are BENT. John says that followers of Jesus need to start by knowing REALITY. That Langston Hughes poem? I am so tired of waiting. Aren't you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? That s just the FIRST of two sentences of the poem. The other goes like this: Let us take a knife And cut the world in two - - And see what worms are eating At the rind. John the Baptizer is a knife in service of God s justice and peace. John spoke REALITY even when people didn t want to hear it. A second notable thing about John the Baptizer s work is that he calls people back to LISTENING - - listening so carefully to God. What does it feel like to make God s path straight? It begins by listening with such sensitivity to the cries of creation for things to be set right and that leads us to listen carefully to all God s people. One of the things Jesus came to do was break down the walls that divide groups of people. Until we listen to our brothers and sisters of other races, and what it is like to walk in their shoes, live in their skin - - until we listen to their stories on THEIR TERMS we will never be who God means for us to be.

6 6 Fifty- nine years ago last night, Martin Luther King addressed a packed room in Montgomery, Alabama. Five days earlier, Rosa Parks had refused to give up her seat on the bus and the Montgomery Bus Boycott was begun. On that night, King, addressed the crowd, saying: There comes a time when people get TIRED of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed OUT of the glittering sunlight of life's July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. There comes a time. We are here- - we are here this evening because we are tired now. I want it to be known that we are Christian people. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That's all. 4 This week, Arienne Thompson, an entertainment reporter for a major newspaper, departed from her usual beat of celebrities and red carpet photo ops to write: Do you know how exhausting it is to be black in America? Do you have any idea? Do you know what it's like to be... followed in a store. "mistaken" for the help.... petted like a dog because your hair is "interesting." told to "get over" the wholesale trade and trafficking of your ancestors? I do. And so do millions of other black Americans. Rich and poor. Uneducated and those with a Ph.D. Famous and anonymous. We are exhausted. We are tired. We can't breathe.

7 7 We can no longer bear the weight of seeing our men, our Americans, our husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles and cousins humiliated, profiled, emasculated, choked, dragged and shot, day in and day out. We are sick of needing new hashtags. #RumainBrisbon. #TamirRice. #MichaelBrown. #EricGarner. #TrayvonMartin. #ICantBreathe #WhosNext. We are sick of hollow apologies and press conferences and presidential speeches and gone- too- soon funerals and distraught parents wailing in the streets. We are exhausted. Aren't you? 5 John calls us to NAME REALITY, which the church calls repentance. John calls us to LISTEN tenderly, humbly to God and to ALL the voices of those long silenced. And in this bent world, John calls us to TRUST GOD with a radicalism we can scarcely imagine. THAT is what it feels like to walk God s straight paths in this BENT world we TRUST GOD radically. Which means, if we read our Bible closely, that we should live lives of vulnerability and meekness. that we should give up our agendas for the sake of God s purpose for our world. According to the Bible, a radical TRUST in God that John is calling for means that widows and orphans and aliens and the poor and all who are vulnerable are offered protection and support. At another time of trembling and fear, Dr. King said: Our lives begin to END the day we become silent about things that matter.

8 8 Radical trust in God means we trust God s ability to BE PEACE. And we live our lives caring about what matters and we trust NOT ONE THING that distracts us from what matters. The gift of PEACE as a fruit of the Spirit like ALL the others over the last 7 weeks is a call to OUR ACTION: - - to face the REALITY of our BENT world, - - to LISTEN beyond our own agendas, - - and to TRUST God who makes every rough place smooth, and every crooked path straight. How do we work with God to UNBEND our world? Day by day. Word by word. Breath by breath. Step by step. There are several wonderful stories about the great, yet incredibly humble, Ignace Yan Paderewski, the Russian composer- pianist who died in One evening he was scheduled to perform at a great concert hall. In the dressed- up audience of men and woman was a mother with her fidgety 9- year old son. His mother brought him in hopes her boy would be inspired to practice the piano so, against his own wishes, he had come. As she turned to talk with her friends, the boy slipped from her side, and without much notice from the sophisticated audience, the boy climbed the stage and sat down at the stool, staring wide- eyed at the black and white keys, he put his small fingers upon the keyboard. He began to play "Chopsticks." The roar of the crowd was hushed by hundreds of frowning faces turned in his direction. An angered audience began jeering at the boy, imploring for him to be taken from the stage. Backstage, the master overheard the sounds out front and quickly put together what was happening.

9 9 Hurriedly, he grabbed his coat and rushed toward the stage. Without one word of announcement, he stooped over the boy, reached around both sides and began to improvise a counter melody to harmonize and enhance the tune. As the two of them played together, Paderewski kept whispering in the boy's ear: "Keep going. Don't quit. Keep on playing. Don't quit. I'm right here...don't quit!" 6 * * * * * * * * * On how to bring PEACE to this world, On how to BE PEACE in this world, On how to even begin to work on the deep racial divide in this society, On how to address galling injustice - - at best, I feel like a kid trying to play chopsticks. We cannot compose the music of God s harmonious creation. John cries out of the wilderness. He points us to the stage of God s activity and here is Jesus. And Jesus wraps his arms around us, as we try to offer ourselves to the work of setting right, healing and making whole, UNBENDING all that is out of shape Whispering to us all the while: Keep going. Don t quit. Don t quit. Keep going. UNBEND unbend some more- - and still more. Don t quit. Keep going Jan Richardson is an artist and a Methodist pastor with an Advent poem Blessing When the World is Ending - - Look, the world is always ending somewhere. the sun has come crashing down.

10 10 it has gone completely dark. it has ended with the gun the knife the fist. it has ended with the slammed door the shattered hope. it has ended with the utter quiet that follows the news from the phone the television the hospital room. it has ended with a tenderness that will break your heart. But, listen, this blessing means to be anything but morose. It has not come to cause despair. It is simply here because there is nothing a blessing is better suited for than an ending, nothing that cries out more for a blessing than when a world is falling apart.

11 11 This blessing will not fix you will not mend you will not give you false comfort; it will not talk to you about one door opening when another one closes. It will simply sit itself beside you among the shards and gently turn your face toward the direction from which the light will come, gathering itself about you as the world begins again. 7 Face the LIGHT of God- - even now coming into the world. Receive your Advent blessing. Face reality. Listen more carefully than you ever have before in your life. Trust God more radically than you ever have before in your life. Don t quit keep going. Keep going don t quit. Do what matters: BE God s PEACE. Amen. 1 Christopher R. Hutson, Feasting on the Word Year B, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration, Theological Perspective on Mark 1:1-8 2 George W. Stroup, Feasting on the Word Year B, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration, Theological Perspective on Isaiah 40: Diana Butler Bass, Black Friday: A Morality Tale, Patheos.com, November 30, All the quote from King in this sermon are taken from the online collection of his writings, speeches, and sermons at kpp01.stanford.edu/index 5 Voices by Arienne Thompson, USA Today, December 5, Russell Levensen, Jr., Day1 sermon, November 27, Taken from the Rethink Church blog Advent Day 6 (Practice the Apocalypse)