10th Sunday After
Pentecost - Year A
August 13, 2017
I
Kings 19:9-18 & Matthew 14:22-33
Thank you for the time away – I am
deeply appreciative to you for granting my sabbatical request. I would also point out that while many of you
have spoken of the ways in which you missed me personally, no one has
identified a lapse in ministry. While this
might not bode well for my job security, it speaks volumes to the goal of every
professional church worker – we are to equip the saints in such a way that we
become unnecessary. We are getting real
close to that point here – and that is a beautiful and powerful witness to the
presence of God’s Spirit among us and to our meaningfully taking on the mantle
of the priesthood of all believers.
I am glad to be back; but it is a
difficult Sunday to be back. Like many
of you, I have spent much of the past twenty-four hours listening to stories
from Charlottesville. I have gotten
caught up in the twitter storm. And I
know that what is said this morning in our Christian Churches will expose our
character and place in society as we move forward into the days and weeks to
come.
I am also fully aware that today is
the blessing of the back-packs. As a
result, many households included an additional push to get the youngest of
their members here this morning. Those little
ones do not deserve the blame for what happened yesterday. But as one twitter chain noted “Love comes
more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. People must learn to hate, and if they can
learn to hate, they can be taught to love.”
It is very, very important; it is absolutely essential; that these
little ones among us this morning hear us speak a lesson about loving others
and denouncing hatred.
We know this – we repeat it often. Say with me, but if there is a child near you
look them in the eyes as you speak the words of John 3:16 – “For God so loved
the world….”
Maybe this isn’t a difficult Sunday
after all. Maybe this is a Sunday we
will remember and recall for the rest of our lives. Maybe this is the day when we are courageous
enough to look in the mirror and be truthful about what we see.
This is the fourth version of a
sermon I have written this week. Preachers
who look for justification for writing their sermons as they walk through the
parking lot will long point to this day and say, “See, that is why I do it….” I am not going to do it every week – mostly because
it isn’t fun to toss and turn all night then get up extra early to type out yet
another rendition.
One of the earlier drafts started
with an analysis of Matthew 14 and I Kings 19.
Not knowing what lay ahead, the bible study leader at our conference
this week look at the attempts of Elijah to escape the mission God had given
him. She pointed out that twice in that
reading God says the same thing to Elijah – “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
God had given Elijah a task; God
had empowered Elijah to speak the word of the Lord. And Elijah had done pretty well, up to this
point. But now, he is off in the
wilderness somewhere, hiding in a cave.
“What are you doing here, Elijah?” “You belong somewhere else.” “You ought to be where my word and my command
have sent you.”
The bible study leader’s challenge
is even more applicable than she could have anticipated.
If we cower in the face of what
happened yesterday in Charlottesville, we are attempting to rewrite the
exchange in I Kings 19.
If we back away from this
opportunity to speak God’s word, we have given a different answer to God’s
asking “What are you doing (in this place of hiding)” than the scriptural answer.
Another twitter chain made an
undocumented but probably true statement.
Many, too many, of the organizers of yesterday’s official protest would
self-identify as “God loving Americans.”
I know, from my own personal history, that the KKK has deep convictions
that they are doing what they do because it has been ordained by God.
The Church has to speak. What we say is very important. And perhaps more important is what we might
fail to say.
Bring it back home. One of the twitter feeds I followed last
night is A.D. Carson. He completed his doctoral
studies last spring. If you have not
read his “See the Stripes” poem do so today.
It has been set to rap. “See the
Stripes.”
Those who assembled in
Charlottesville yesterday were overt in their racism and bigotry. I would be surprised if there are any among
us this morning who are overt, but I know there are way too many instances in
which we are passive. And that is a
mistake we cannot continue to make.
I will say it clearly – even expanding
it a bit. If the Church does not stand up
against hatred and oppression, we have lost our moorings and our reason to
claim the name of Jesus. There is NO
DOUBT what would Jesus do. He would
defend persons of color, he would welcome persons of differing religious
traditions, and he would see that the poor are treated for their illnesses and
healed.
Some of you have been asking me for
stories from Germany. So let me tell you
one. And it ties in to all this.
In Wittenberg, for the anniversary,
there are display booths from practically every expression of the church. One of them impressed me more than any of the
others. It is a tent set up by “The
Confessing Church Movement.” I didn’t
know the movement was still active – but I know now why it needs to be.
The Confessing Church gained
notoriety because of a pastor by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He, along with others, refused to go along
with the church’s willingness to fall in step with the Brown Shirts in Germany,
in the 1930’s. They penned a statement
called the “Barman Declaration.” It condemned
the racism of the Nazi Party and called on the Church to stand in opposition.
The Declaration didn’t garner
widespread support. Bonhoeffer is
eventually imprisoned and executed at the concentration camp in Flossburg.
Now – I want to be careful – and I want
to fully acknowledge that only extensive research can discern whether something
causes an outcome or if the outcome is merely somehow related to the earlier
events. But it has been my experience
that many of the Germans who no longer see a reason for being involved in the
Church point to the silence of the official church at a critical time. I will be even more explicit in saying that
this is what I experience in our culture, and in the work we seek to do with
college students.
The Confessing Church Movement – in
Germany – continues to identify places where the voice of God is desperately
needed. The churches in the U.S. must
speak out this morning, or accept the observation that our silence has exposed
what is in our hearts and what matters most to us.
A closing look at the Gospel text.
Peter could see where Jesus
was. Peter saw Jesus standing in a place
that ought not to have been capable of allowing him to stand there. In the story, Jesus is walking on water. But the image is of a Lord who is able to do
what they say can’t be done.
Peter asks Jesus to make it
possible for him to stand on that porous surface; Peter asks Jesus to help me
do what no one is capable of doing. And
Jesus says, “Sure. Come on out here.” And Peter does it. He does what is not possible to do.
But then he allows the wind to
distract him. He stops thinking about
Jesus and starts to think of the 20,000 leagues of water below and around him. And he starts to sink.
Eliminating racism and bigotry may
seem like an impossible task. But if our
Lord beacons us to come to where he is, we can do it. And we ought to do it. Will we be battered by the wind and the waves
and lose our focus on the voice which says, “Sure. Come on out here.”?
The soul of the Church is at stake
here. The future of the Church may well
be determined in these days. Some of us
will die and many of us will lose our places of prominence. But we do have to decide whether to retreat
back inside that cave or wrap our mantles around us and come out to the place
where God’s Word once again comes to us and instructs us.
Amen.
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