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/

God's joy is fabulously, over the top, nonsensically extravagant - 17th after pentecost

The holy gospel according to Luke (15:1-10)

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.

       ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying,

              “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³So Jesus told them this parable:

       ⁴“Which man of you,

              having a hundred sheep and losing one of them,

                     does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness

                     and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

              ⁵When he has found it,

                     he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.

              ⁶And when he comes home,

                     he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them,

                            ‘Rejoice with me,

                                   for I have found my sheep that was lost.’

              ⁷Just so, I tell you,

                     there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents

                            than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

       ⁸“Or what woman of you having ten silver coins,

              if she loses one of them,

                     does not light a lamp,

                     sweep the house,

                     and search carefully until she finds it?

              ⁹When she has found it,

                     she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying,

                            ‘Rejoice with me,

                                   for I have found the coin that I had lost.’

              ¹⁰Just so, I tell you,

                     there is joy in the presence of the angels of God

                            over one sinner who repents.”

The gospel of the Lord.

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How many of you have sheep?  Have ever had or interacted with sheep?  What are they like?

Shepherding is still an important part of Slovak culture, so while I was living in Slovakia, I would see sheep similarly to how we see cows in this neck of the woods.  Cartoon sheep were even part of Slovak tourism!

But here’s the kicker—and I think about this every time Good Shepherd Sunday rolls around or Jesus decides to bring up sheep again—sheep are not smart animals!  And they’re not well-behaved either!  They don’t know not to wander off!  They just wander!

Not to mention, have you ever tried counting 100 sheep—or even 100 cows or 100 of anything—at one time?  Let’s be honest, how does this shepherd even know that he didn’t just miscount and there really are all 100 sheep still with him?  It takes a lot to make sure one sheep out of a hundred is actually missing, or to even notice anything is amiss in the first place!

Then, once you figure it out, are you really going to leave the 99 to wander off themselves?  Because you know that the second you head off after that one, all the other 99 will spot butterflies or greener fields or something and head off on their own.

You may get that one that you’d lost back, but to do that, you’ve now lost the other 99.  But say the 99 miraculously stay put, then you go throw a party celebrating the one you lost and then found again.  And what do you serve?  Mutton!  So you kill that sheep, and probably more, to feed your party guests!  This all seems pretty pointless and nonsensical to me.

But perhaps it makes more sense with the woman and her coins.

How many of you have ever made stacks of coins to count them more easily?  How easy is it to tell if a stack has one coin or two?  How about 5 coins or 6?  9 or 10?  Once they get that high, unless they’re two stacks right next to each, it’s hard to tell that one is missing, so kudos once again to the woman, who actually noticed that a coin was even missing in the first place.

As for the coins themselves, these were not just nickels or dimes or even silver dollars.  Though our translation calls them “silver coins,” the Greek identifies them as drachma.  A drachma would’ve been about or just below a day’s worth of wages.  So, the idea of having two weeks’ wages lying around, like the idea of having 100 sheep just hanging out with you, is a bit extravagant for us and the folks Jesus is talking to, and probably means that losing one would not be quite as big a deal as losing a day’s wages might be to many.

But the woman sets out on a search for the missing coin anyway.  And while I would tear my house apart, making a huge mess, in my search for something I lost, she seems much more orderly in her endeavor.  She even manages the bonus of getting the house all swept while she looks!

Once she finds the coin, what does she do?  She spends it—and probably more—celebrating with her friends!  More nonsense!  Over the top, extravagant celebration with all the neighbors and friends!

The last part to make sense of is that after each parable, Luke throws in the line about sinners repenting, but it doesn’t really fit.  The shepherd’s the one who lost track of the sheep and the woman’s the one who lost the coin.  The sheep and the coin don’t do any repenting.  So maybe the stories aren’t actually about repentance.  Maybe they’re really about this nonsensical, extravagant celebration.

15 years ago, terrorists took over planes and attacked, or tried to attack, some of the more prominent and symbolic buildings of this country.  I’m going to date myself here a little: 15 years ago today, in my first year of high school, I spent almost every class period watching and rewatching the same short amount of footage of the attacks and their after-effects.

I saw the same horrific images over and over and over again, so that by the time I went home from school, I was numb and felt as traumatized as if I had actually known someone in New York, even though I was thousands of miles away in Colorado and had only been to New York once in my life.

In the past 15 years we have experienced tragedy after tragedy in this country and around the world,            sometimes, because of the attacks 15 years ago and our country’s response to them.  Each time a mass tragedy strikes, especially if it happens in this country, we get the same oversaturation from news shows, showing the same 30 seconds of video and going over the same limited facts until again we are too numb and traumatized to do anything.

We lose our ability to respond at all, let alone responding with love.  We lose our sense of joy and wonder at the world.  We lose our sense of safety.

For perhaps the first time in my life, this summer I had to turn off NPR.  I just couldn’t handle the constant news coverage after the attack at Pulse, the gay night club in Orlando.  I was losing my hope and I needed to plug into a deeper source of hope.  I needed to keep myself from spiraling into yet another cycle of numbness.

So, I prayed.  A lot.  And I spent time with friends and we went to Pride in the Twin Cities and we celebrated the gift of each other and of God’s fabulous love in our lives.  We celebrated the joy of who and how God made and continues to make each of us.  Pride’s extravagance is a celebration on par with the woman and the shepherd’s celebrations upon finding what they’d lost.

Celebration.  Not repentance.  Is at the heart of today’s parables.  That is the witness we have for the world.  That is what we practice, as church, each week.  In the face of every excuse to despair, to become numb, to sink into depression, we silence our phones and focus on God and each other. 

We gather to sing praises to God, to receive and celebrate God’s forgiveness in our lives, to share in holy communion, being fed by Jesus who is the Bread of Life.  We gather to share not only our concerns and real tears and fears, but our joys as well, sharing in brief signs of God’s peace with each other, and then being sent out for joyful service to the world.

The Gospel is celebration.  It is joy in the face of a million reasons to despair, to be sad and numb, and to give up hope.  It is God’s love for each of us and for all of creation, poured out with extravagant joy.  Because God is extravagant and the celebration, the feast awaiting us all will be fabulously, over the top, nonsensically extravagant to match God’s joy at being with us all.

Thanks be to God.