sermon epiphanies

(get it?? epiphanies!)

(cn: violence, especially against children)

babies (and children) are, quite probably, the most dangerous threat to unjust power.

 a: Voldemort finds out about the prophecy and has to kill Harry ASAP--no waiting to find out what kind of a threat he will be.

b: Herod's reaction to Jesus = kill all the babies (even though he will be dead long before Jesus is an adult).

c: in Moses' day, the pharaoh's plan to keep all the power away from the Hebrew people is to kill all the babies.

d: Malala Yousafzai's commitment to education access posed such a threat that the Taliban attempted to kill her.

e: very little care or concern was exhibited for the people and refugees of Syria until a little boy was killed on the journey to freedom and another was covered in blood and dirt in Aleppo and people started to care.

f: boko haram kidnapped 276 girls who were students at a government school in Chibok, Nigeria, whose lives--for those who survive--will never be the same.

g: the school to prison pipeline funnels kids away from opportunities to change the world and toward a life of restriction and slavery.

h: child slavery is a tool used to oppress humanity.  from a young age, children are taught not to think past the next 24 hours, if that.  they are kept busy, working in factories and sweat shops and doing sex work so that they cannot think past what is immediately before them, creating a pattern that can continue their whole lives, keeping them submissive to a system that only wants them for what they can do.
i: rape is used as a weapon not only for the violence (psychological and physical) of it, but for the potential of children being born who complicate (for lack of a better word) the culture of the survivors of rape.

babies have not yet learned the hatred and the fear that we live and breathe as adults. they are filled with goodness and potential. what would happen if we actually listened to them? what if you could vote at a younger age? what if children could decide the future of the environment and education?

God's imagination is bigger: advent 4

The holy gospel according to Matthew.

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.

When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph,

       but before they lived together,

              she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

       ¹⁹Her husband Joseph,

              being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,

                     planned to dismiss her quietly.

              ²⁰But just when he had resolved to do this,

                     an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,

                            “Joseph, son of David,

                                   do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,

                                          for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

                                   ²¹She will bear a son,

                                          and you are to name him Jesus,

                                                 for he will save his people from their sins.”

²²All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord

       through the prophet:

              ²³“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

                     and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

                            which means, “God is with us.”

²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep,

       he did as the angel of God commanded him;

       he took Mary home as his wife,

              ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son;

                     and he named him Jesus.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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One of my favorite TV shows is Joan of Arcadia.  In the show God, in various personifications, show up and talks to a high schooler named Joan.  In one episode God asks Joan to keep her friend Adam’s art piece out of the art show.  When Joan doesn’t, Adam wins the art show, sells his sculpture, and decides to use the money to quit school. 

Joan is distraught.  Realizing why God didn’t want the piece in the show, she does the only thing she can think of in that moment: she smashes Adam’s sculpture.

Joan encounters God again toward the end of the episode and lists all the ways she tried to stop things—talking Adam into not entering the show, buying the piece herself, stealing it.  Nothing else worked and as she gets ready to blame God for “making her” destroy the sculpture, God says, “Don’t blame me for your failure of imagination.”

Joan and Joseph are in similar situations.  He is as good as married to Mary according to custom and law, only to find out that she is pregnant and it’s not his kid.

What’s a guy to do?  Divorce is the only option he can imagine.  It’s just a matter of doing it quietly or publicly.  He can bring her to the public square, which would bring shame to her and her whole family, or he can “dismiss her quietly”—get a quick divorce and send her back to live with her family and raise her child, if her family will have her back, that is.  With any luck—which she’d need a lot of—she will survive all of this, the child will as well, and they can all move on with their separate lives.

Joan and Joseph both have a failure of imagination.  In fact, we as humans quite frequently suffer from failures of imagination.  We can only imagine two less than ideal, and usually mutually exclusive options.  We have created an either/or world. 

Joan can either brake Adam’s sculpture or let him quit high school.  Joseph can either quietly divorce Mary or make it into a public scene.  We can either provide military support to the Syrian government besieging Aleppo or provide military support to the rebel forces fighting back.   

We can either get into arguments or talk only about neutral topics and to people with whom we agree.  We can either be upset about the new school or support our students.  We can either want justice or forgive someone who has wronged us.  We can either be sinners or saints.  We can either be sick or whole.  Jesus can either be human or divine.  God can either be three or one.

And then God steps in, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

God’s imagination is bigger than ours.

Joan could have asked the woman who bought the sculpture to make her purchase contingent on Adam staying in school.  Joseph can remain faithful to Mary and help raise Jesus, who is Immanuel, God-with-us.  We can support Doctors without Borders and the White Helmets who are rescuing those left behind in Aleppo.  We can seek to understand each other’s perspectives when we disagree and have conversations about how we care differently for the most vulnerable. 

We can volunteer at the new school to show our care for the students, and appreciation of the staff.  We can forgive others for harm and hold them accountable for helping restore the community that was fractured by the wrong they committed.  We can be both sinners who do wrong and saints, made righteous by God through our baptism.  We can struggle with illness and be so full of love that we draw a community together in support and care.  Jesus is both fully human and fully divine.  God is both three and one, the holy Trinity.

God’s imagination is greater by far than ours and God’s embrace, despite our best efforts, is wider.  God in Jesus is both fully human and fully divine.  Jesus does experience the ups and downs, twists and turns of human life with us.  God-with-us, Immanuel, is also big enough to embrace the whole cosmos, to bring all of life and love into being.

When we are struck with a failure of imagination, it only takes a brief search in the Bible to find our imaginative God who brings both light and dark into the world, who advocates for justice and peace, who restores wholeness to individuals in communities.  Who comes as human and divine, who acknowledges the reality of human institutions of authority and God’s reign, which holds ultimate authority.  Jesus brings an alternative to violence—renewed opportunities for relationship and resistance to evil that does not require violence. 

When we are faced with a failure of imagination, God-with-us, Immanuel, fills the world with endless imagination.

Thanks be to God.

How far is it to Bethlehem? meditation: advent 3

Today we journeyed with many to see the child who is God come to dwell with us.  We have journeyed on camel and by foot for longer and shorter distances.  We journeyed with all of these people from the comfort of our pews.

Throughout the world, people are sharing this journey, wondering, “How far is it to Bethlehem?”  Some make the pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity to worship in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, some to the nearest church building.  Last night Mary and Joseph walked down Mill Street.

In Mexico, the 9 days before Christmas, beginning this week, mark what is known as Las Posadas, during which the community gathers with Mary and Joseph, visiting different houses, requesting lodging—posada.  Through the sung exchanges at each house, those on the journey, those outside, ask for lodging and those inside deny it until, at the end, those inside recognize and welcomed in those on the outside.  Then everyone gathers—in a home or in the church, to pray around the nativity, sing Christmas carols, and break open a seven-pointed, star-shaped piñata. 

Different countries and cultures celebrate and commemorate Christmas in unique ways.  Our journey to Bethlehem took place today and will take place again soon.  In Palestine and Mexico they journey to Bethlehem in a different way and yet we all make the journey together.

We are all almost there—almost to Bethlehem and Christmas, and the closer we get, the more we remember—with both joy and sadness—those who have gone to Bethlehem with us in years past, and wonder at who will make that journey with us this year.  Though love is at the heart of this journey, it can be a sad one for those who are missing loved ones who’ve died, or ones who are away from home.

Yet these journeys we’re on are also the journey of Jesus.  The journey of God coming to Bethlehem, to be with us and the journey of Jesus, who walks with us along our paths of faith.  As we wonder what will come, Jesus wonders that as well.   Jesus wonders with us and walks with us.  We journey to the incarnation, the love of God come to dwell with us, as a baby in a feeding trough. 

God who walks with us is also God who shows up unexpectedly along the journey, as a baby, a stranger, a friend, and a loved one.  Jesus just keeps showing up for the journey, asking, “How far is it to Bethlehem?”

Prayer and Ceremony at Standing Rock: advent 2a (readings are from 3a)

The readings I reference are: Isaiah 35:1-10 and Matthew 11:2-11.

As B mentioned, I shifted this week from full-time to part-time.  And as I shifted into that, I took some of the extra time I had this week to search in the wilderness, like the crowd Jesus is talking to in today’s gospel.

In my searching I found: prayer and ceremony, holy ground, and sacred work.

The wilderness I went to was in what we know as North Dakota.  A colleague of mine in the Presbyterian Church and I left on Wednesday night and travelled through the night to Standing Rock.  We went for different reasons and the same reason.  We went because we felt God calling us to be with the people gathered at Standing Rock.

We didn’t go with great expectations of overthrowing something. We didn’t go with much of an idea of what we would find.  We read up and we did our homework, but mostly we went knowing we would camp, probably in the snow.  And both of us were grateful for it.  And we brought it back just for you.  I know, my gift for you.

We went and when we got there, we arrived in the morning and we had an orientation and they had a couple meetings and gatherings to help people who were recent arrivals.  They’ve had such an influx, that they do this every day to help people figure out what it means to be at Oceti Sakowin Camp.

And the orientation began, as all of the gatherings that we had did, with prayer.  They invited any of the Lakota, Dakota, or Nakota Elders who were there to share a prayer if they wanted.  And if they didn’t, then they opened it up to any indigenous elders, and then people of color, and then anyone to share a prayer to both begin and end our time together.

But it wasn’t just that we prayed at the beginning and at the end.  There were signs up everywhere and the message that was repeated over and over again, is that we were there for prayer and ceremony.  So often in the news we talk about Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline and we think that it’s all this political thing and there’s conflict and there’s violence and nonviolence and everybody is so tense and wound up.  But that’s not what’s happening at the camps.

The entire place is a place of prayer and ceremony, so when we went to meetings, we were going to meetings that were prayers.  There were two fires set up in our camp that were Sacred Fires that burned continuously.  And there was a person for each who guarded the fire and tended it.  We offered tobacco and sage and sweetgrass.  We gathered around to sing, to pray.  There were drum circles.

People came from all over and brought things.  Brought their own struggles and brought their own prayers. 

And we worked.  We worked in prayer, so that when we were moving donations around in the kitchen and organizing, it was prayer.  So that when we were stacking wood and clearing the snow off of it, so that it would be ready to use for the Sacred Fire when it needed to be refueled, it was prayer.

When we were doing dishes in the kitchen and doing the roll your sleeves up with wet hands dance, it was prayer.  Everything we did was prayer.

While we were there, there was a group that did do a direct action, in addition to simply being present as a direct action.

The Morton County Sherriff’s department had put out a list of donations that they were requesting.  At the top of the list were thoughts and prayers and then it had disposable plates and silverware, snacks to eat, handwarmers, those sorts of things.

The Indigenous Environmental Network and the Indigenous Peoples Power Project  put out a statement before going, and they said, “The Oceti Sakowin camp is a prayer camp, and a resilient, self-sufficient community. The camp is full of abundance-- in spirit, in humanity, and in resources. Oceti Sakowin has enough to share. Generosity is an original teaching for the Lakota.”

So they went to the Morton County Sherriff’s department and they prayed for the sherriff’s department and they gave them what they had requested on their donations list.

I’ve never understood what 1 Thessalonians means when it says, “¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

That was what I learned there.  I’m sure I learned more and will find more things in the days and weeks to come, but we really and truly prayed without ceasing there.

We prayed when we gathered in the morning before the sun was up, before we could see anything except the lights from the sherriff’s department shining on us.

We gathered and sang songs and prayed.  There was smudging.  And then we had a water ceremony and we lifted up the water that is life.  Something that we know about as Christians—this water that is life.  This water that is infused with God’s presence and God’s Spirit.  For us, we claim this most clearly in the waters of Baptism.

As water pours over beloved children of God, claiming them in full and abundant love.  So we lifted up this water together—water from what we know as the Canonball River and water that people had brought from their own homes.  We lifted it up and we shared it.  And then we went to the river together.  And as we went, we sang water songs.  We would occasionally pause to declare that “Water is life. Mni Waconi. Agua es vida.” In the language of the people present, we declared that water is life.

We went to the river and offered tobacco and prayers at the water’s edge and we sang more songs and we prayed more prayers.  And as we sang and as we prayed, the sun came up over the hill across the water and we gave thanks for the sun, which we hadn’t seen since we had arrived.

It reminded me of our reading from Isaiah: “¹The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; … waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; … the ransomed of the Sovereign shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

As we returned, we gave a ride to someone who was ultimately heading to Philadelphia.  They joined us as far as Minneapolis.  As we were going back and reflecting on our time, she asked a question that had come up throughout our time from a variety of people.  “how do we continue to do everything in prayer and ceremony as we’re leaving Standing Rock?”

It is my question.  It is my prayer. 

How do we come here and shovel the snow as prayer?  Sing songs as prayer?  Cook food, clean food, clean bathrooms as prayer?  To drive as prayer—and not just the kind that’s afraid of going off the road in snowy icy snowy weather?  To work as prayer? 

To know that everywhere we go and everything we do is prayer and ceremony.  The ground we are standing on is holy sacred ground.  Not because we make it so, but because God made it so when God created all that is.

And so, as we move into this week.  As we move through Advent, especially, and into Christmas, my prayer for you is that your life, your waking, your sleeping, your moving, your resting, may be prayer and ceremony as well.

Amen.

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For more information, please visit the following links:

On the decision by the Army Corp of Engineers not to grant an easement: http://standwithstandingrock.net/standing-rock-sioux-tribes-statement-u-s-army-corps-engineers-decision-not-grant-easement/

On more information, including a link to Transfer Energy Partners' response: http://sacredstonecamp.org/blog/2016/12/2/obama-administration-denies-final-easement-whats-next

For information on the camp we stayed at: http://www.ocetisakowincamp.org/

For more information on Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline: http://standwithstandingrock.net/