Moving Forward

“Moving Forward”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

August 18, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Hebrew 11:29-12:2

Luke 12:49-56

         Jesus says in the Gospel of John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Then in chapter 16:33, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!"

         Juxtapose these verses with the words we heard read from the Gospel of Luke today and you may think they came from two different people. Jesus says in Luke 12:51, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

         Now before you think Jesus had a screw loose, let’s break down the Luke text. First, keep in mind that this is what scholars call an “apocalyptic” text or an “end-times” text. The most well known examples of end-times literature are John’s Book of Revelation in the Christian Testament and the Book of Daniel in the Tanakh. They are full of frightening images of fire, mythological beasts, natural disasters, and supernatural happenings.

         Those who read these things in Jesus’ time would know that they were symbolic. The figure called Satan was a symbol for the oppressive powers of the Roman Empire. And the terrible events were predicted in the midst of great tension in the ancient Near East. Oppression sickness had permeated the Jewish population of Jesus’ time. Oppression sickness is when a minority group is oppressed by the dominant group and feels powerless, so they in turn oppress those even more marginalized.

         Though we pride ourselves in the LGBT community in caring for each other because of the widespread phenomenon of rejection from our families of origin, we still suffer from oppression sickness. We form our own cliques and say who can come in and who cannot. Wealthy gay and lesbian people disassociate with lower-class gays and lesbians. Homelessness is a pandemic among our youth, but we seem to have greater priorities. HIV-negative gay men disown HIV-positive friends. Gays and lesbians stay ignorant on transgender issues and too often exclude transgender and gender variant people.

         Oppression sickness is the evil that Jesus came to save us from. When Luke tells us in the Book of Acts about those who were “being saved,” it is telling us that those folks made a decision to be anti-oppression. To be baptized was to go under the water in death and to rise out of the water into new life. The ego is left behind and the God-Self is what remains. And the God-Self always works against oppression.

         Jesus did come to bring peace, but not without a cost. Genuine peace requires facing conflict. It doesn’t require war, but it does require facing the unspoken things that have become the norm. Genuine “shalom” peace is about complete wholeness within oneself and within the community. That kind of peace requires a very uncomfortable exercise: looking the “elephant in the room” straight in the eyes.

         In this passage from Luke, Jesus is pointing to the issue of conflict avoidance. He sees how his people have allowed themselves to be degraded just to “keep the peace,” so to speak. They were alive and could sometimes make a basic living, but they had lost their dignity. Their self-worth was nowhere to be found.

         So to stir up the people, Jesus had to say something more provocative than, “Hey you guys, let’s talk about peace.” Jesus was keepin’ it real! The fire he says he is bringing to the earth is the Refiner’s Fire. It is not a means of punishment, but rather a means of purification. When precious metals are purified, they must go through the fire to burn away the impurities. In the same way, those who choose to follow Christ must allow selfishness, greed, arrogance, malice, fear, and the like to be burned away. In the extracanonical Gospel of Thomas (82)(not in our Bible), Jesus says, “Whoever is near me is near fire; whoever is distant from me is distant from the kin-dom.” The choice is made clear: be near Jesus and be refined by his holy fire and be rewarded with Heaven on Earth or stay away from the fire and continue to live Hell on Earth.

         Our reading from the Book of Hebrews puts it a bit differently. It reads, “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…” Jesus instructs his followers that the oppression sickness will be burned away. The book of Hebrews instructs us to simply lay it down, allow it to just fall away. But within the same text, notice that it implicitly tells us that setting it down is not an easy task. When we have privilege, we cling to it like a frightened child clings to a teddy bear.

         But God calls us to a higher spiritual existence. We cannot claim spiritual maturity if we hold onto the spiritual toys of conflict avoidance, playing the judge or playing the victim, being the squeaky wheel, and the like. These behaviors are reflections of ego, not reflections of the God-Self.

         Yes, we have all gone through some hell in our lives. We have all had our struggles. It’s part of being human. But our struggles are no excuse for playing the victim. Through faith, we are bigger than our struggles. God is bigger than any struggle. The Hebrews reading gave us all the gory details of the different tortures people of faith went through. Many of those people never saw what they felt was promised to them. But they lived their lives anyhow, always striving to “higher ground.”

"The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway."

~Kent M. Keith, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council

         Being a person of faith isn’t about believing that the journey will be easy. But it is about knowing that the journey will be gratifying. Just as there will be moments of great sorrow, there will be moments of great joy. The journey isn’t all about the end result. The journey is about taking each step with confidence that there will be solid ground in front of you each day. And knowing that if there isn’t, you will be carried to the next part of the path if you only ask.

         What does it mean for MCC New Haven to run with perseverance the race that is set before us? Are we running or are we crawling? Are we on the right path? Are we on the Yellow Brick Road to seek our goals or are we in the Poppy Fields, getting sleepy? What might we still be carrying on our shoulders that is keeping us from running?

         Next Saturday from 10am to 2pm, we will flesh out these questions during our Visioning Retreat. Please be there, bring a potluck dish to share, and bring an open mind and heart. Together, we can do the work God is calling us to do. Please step forward in faith with me as we realize our great potential. And so it is! Amen.