Day 868 - Word and Speech or Truth and Action?

A Sermon for the Urban Outreach Ministry, April 27, 2015, Chattanooga, TN

OT reading: Psalm 23

NT reading: 1 John 3: 16-24

I had intended to conclude my commentary on the nature of faithful Christian social justice last week to avoid becoming overbearing, but the lectionary persists in presenting to us more reflections on the nature of Christian activism. 

A Christian has an irresistible obligation and free gift of opportunity to walk in the world striving to reflect the model of human behavior that Jesus gave us. Over the last several months we have discovered two core characteristics of that model Christian life: (1) It honors the Lord as Creator and  Lover of all, and source of all good gifts; (2) It causes us to shower the same honor we give to the Lord and all our good gifts on all God’s children, as we desire that heavenly rain our self. That is, it is a life of radical Christianity characterized by direct personal action of sharing our own good gifts with those who have less. Why? Because the root of all the Lord’s love is heart-wrenching compassion (splanchnizomai, remember?) towards the Lord’s creation. To hold that compassion for our fellows compels us personally to share our gifts because it means the Spirit of the Lord abides within us.

That life of honor and mutual, compassionate sharing is the nature of the Kingdom of God. In other words, living an active, compassionate, giving Christian life realizes the Kingdom of God on Earth. Such living instantiates Christian justice in society.

There is a fine line separating us from error in our quest for justice and the Kingdom of God. It is a line that Christian activists seeking Christian justice often cross. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is an error Christians have struggled with since at least the time that the words of John’s letters were written.

One common inclination is to think of the world as comprised of “good” and “evil.” This motivates us to engage in a war of words and speech to fight evil, or to retreat.

At the extreme this represents the conceptual worldview of Gnosticism, that we are comprised of a pure “spiritual being” and an evil physical body. We either go to war against the evil in society or we withdraw into cloistered lives or hedonism (our cell phones, internet, social media, the bar scene, alcohol, nicotine, vanity  etc.). 

Few Christian social activists would claim the label of Gnostic, hermit or hedonist, but many have the idea they can change an evil world into a “good” world, that they can hide behind the words and speech of their sermons to like-minded people or indulge in a secular life avoiding personal self-giving acts themself.

Christian activists who actively seek social justice desire to change laws and governments to create a more charitable, Christian society. The painful irony is many of these will also state that do not seek or want a “political” label, e.g., Democrat, Libertarian, Republican or even “anarchist” (in the US), yet they lobby legislatures, Senators and Representatives and other elected officials for changes in the law that they feel in their own mind are best for everyone. In effect they join the political process they oppose. (It could be useful for them to read 1 Samuel 8 again, and Richard Niebuhr's corpus.)

Can words and speech change society and bring us closer to a “Kingdom of God?”

One of the most well-worn questions we use in our Christ-based program of urban ministry that seeks to change people’s mindset is, “Who do you have the possibility of control to change behavior?” The answer is, “Only yourself. The only power you have over others is the model of your own behavior.”

You may object. But I ask you three simple questions, (1) Did Prohibition stop people from imbibing alcohol?;” "(2)Did the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, or (3) the Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolish racism in the United States?

Racism is still present in the United States of America, but it is often cloaked in a disguise of the real sin - failing to love one’s neighbor as one self. We manifest it by shirking the responsibility to help the poor. We manifest it by refusing to share profligately our own wealth with those who have less. We manifest it when we feel uncomfortable being around people who are different and seek to surround ourselves with like-minded people, perhaps not hiring or promoting those who are different. We manifest it when we cede action to the state (which always operates on a lower ethical plane than expected of individual persons) rather than take our own action. The end result is an insular, disintegrated society such as the Johnanine community.

Did the changes in these previous laws have any positive effect? The honest answer is “yes.” Legal racial discrimination was abolished even though some still practice it on a personal scale. Now the opportunities for people of color in our society are far greater that at any time in its history. Yet most of those opportunities arise from deliberate personal action most of us do not have the persistence to exercise amidst an environment of persistent, if subliminal racial inequality. Many of those opportunities are not accessible to people who are trapped in a world of inculcated generational poverty. Giving money or free food only perpetuates their hopeless state, harming while trying to help. In John's time feeding the hungry was a noble act against the state. Today, perhaps we have done as much harm as good? This is a constant problem with modern "relief efforts" such as the Community Kitchen in Chattanooga. We feed the poor but the consequence is habitual dependence with the handout and do not offer effective routes to independence.

The call of 1 John 3: 16-24 acknowledges the truth of the model of Jesus that relies on the compassion of the Lord. It compels us to act with our own two hands showing we are living in the Kingdom of God with the Spirit within us.

1 John 3: 16-24 calls us to share the goods of the world we possess with those who are lacking. It is a frightening venture to earn perhaps $30,000/yr (or far less, or far more) and begin to share your income as act and model of Christian compassion with those who are lacking. Isn’t it easier to just haul a protest sign and chalk a sidewalk with symbolic protest?

Of course it is easier and far less effective. That is the fundamental point about faith and God’s grace. Jesus said that if you were going to walk in his shoes, do it faithfully and be prepared for sacrifice and abuse. But he also said, in this way you find your way to life in my Father’s house.

That brings us to the critical message the Gospel of John and the writer(s) in his community who penned the epistles of John. Jesus was a man, God incarnate, who walked in the world modeling the compassionate human behavior the Lord expects of all humanity. At the same time the Lord is here with us in Spirit giving the promise of spiritual comfort in the knowledge that when you walk in the world in this way you are on the way home. It is expressed exquisitely by the comforting message of Psalm 23.

I will quote it as paraphrased by Isaac Watts in the hymn I favor ,  “My Shepherd will Supply My Need.”

“My Shepherd will supply my need;

Jehovah is his name:

In pastures fresh He makes me feed,

            Beside the living stream.

He brings my wandering spirit back,

            When I forsake his ways;

And leads me, for his mercy’s sake,

            In paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death

            Your presence is my stay;

One word of your supporting breath

            Drives all my doubt away.

Your hand, in sight of all my foes,

Doth still my table spread;

My cup with blessing overflows,

            Your oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God

            Attend me all my days;

O may Your House be my abode,

            And all my work be praise.

There I would find a settled rest,

            While others come go and come;

No more a stranger, or a guest,

            But like a child at home.

         There is a home where we will live in child-like innocence. We will find our way there by the truth of Jesus that inspires true social justice of our actions of a Christian life. That life reveals the Kingdom of God.

Amen.

Day 861 - Be Angry But Do Not Sin

A Reflection for the Urban Outreach Ministry of Urban Chattanooga, April 20, 2015

OT Reading: Psalm 4
NT Reading: Matthew 5:43-48

How do we seek redress of injustice in society? Is there a better way to find justice in the world than engaging in the political process that is characterized by harassment, name calling and denigrating your opponent? Surely that step leads to self-corruption. The evidence of self-corruption is clear in Facebook posts by members of Christian social justice groups whose comments incite violence against others (right here in Chattanooga). While we should always be at theological war against injustice, can we remake a world that is fundamentally opposed to justice? We should never forget that it is not a war fought with guns and invective that paints our enemies as monsters. Perhaps we can find a better way by praying the Psalms with the intensity of faith, learning something about disruption and equilibrium in life, and about being a good soldier in that theological war fought with the weapon of compassion.

Most people strive for a “normal” life that has equilibrium, no raw edges, no unpleasant surprises – smooth sailing with no heaving boat in rough water, just let Jesus sleep.

Is that what we really want, a dull and humdrum existence devoid of imagination? Some work really hard to achieve “equilibrium” in worship with basketball courts and Christian Life Centers and the business of a conventional, or even unconventional congregation running smoothly with no Jesus on board.

They think if you must get angry, don’t get too angry. If you must get excited, don’t get too excited and upset the applecart. Do not ask questions because no one likes a complainer. Our “equilibrium” worship demands pious obeisance to our polity and dogma. Worshippers never get angry with God or anyone else (that believe the same thing). There is no place in a congregation running so smoothly it has transformed God almost into a comforting afterthought for a person such as Job who prays in the midst of unjustified torment.

That humdrum world is where one finds Karl Marx’s “opiate of the people,” where folks have forgotten the radical Christianity Jesus calls us to live. 

We fool ourselves, and we know it, when we want that feeling of secure orientation and control of life. Every one of us can point to painful events where our calm, normal, easy-going life has been disrupted as foolishness.

It could be an event such as the loss of a job, the betrayal or loss of a spouse to divorce, the death of a parent or child, the failure to get that so longed-for promotion, a medical diagnosis that requires specific medications with its side effects, or worse. It could be the frustration and injustice of a political process that seems to trample the disadvantaged and poor, or even a misguided preacher who told you that you were going to hell for your activity.

These events cause us to realize how precarious and unstable life is, and if we are honest, to look faithfully to God asking, “Why have you allowed this?” and wondering, “How long?” If we understand the Psalms, especially those of lament, we can find some idea of the answer to those two questions.

Perhaps we need to have a serious understanding of the Psalms to begin to understand our quandary of a shrinking denomination? My comments are inspired by the writing of a good book, "Praying the Psalms" by Walter Bruggemann. I commend it to you. 

We must acknowledge the Psalms are a uniquely Jewish voice. They are a conversation, and at times a dangerous conversation between the Holy One and us. It is a conversation most Christians find difficult and alien, and therefore avoid as irreverent or unseemly. We especially avoid the angry and vengeful Psalms such as Ps. 109 and 137. (If we use those Psalms at all, it is usually as weapons. How many of you have heard a preacher toss the words of Psalm 109 at you for stumbling over a denominational creed? )

Yes, the Psalms are quite different from the conversation of a well-oiled, ordinary culture and normality of an orderly worship. The Psalms are dangerous because to direct a rebellious voice towards El Shaddai - God the Destroyer, or God Almighty invites an answer we may not desire. Such a complaint invites the ultimate disruption and dislocation of our own life.

Yet John Calvin said the Psalms are the anatomy of the soul, a window into something that lurks within us all. To ignore that window only contributes to deceiving ourselves.

The Psalms are a complaint, a lament about how sorry and unjust the world is, and how badly it is treating us, God’s people. God owes us more than this! They are a direct demand for a path to righteousness.

Can we forget the lament of Jeremiah, (Jer. 12:4) "How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? Words that the Lord directed to the Pharaoh (Ex10:3),” How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”

Or as the table turns on us, can we ignore The Lord’s lament over his rebellious people,  (Num. 14:27) “How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me.”

A point missed by many of us is that the Psalms are not a solitary voice crying in the wilderness, nor invective against some person or institution, but are a communal voice of passion speaking directly to the Holy One, the Creator of the world about the living and the dying in it. They are the hymns of God’s people giving voice to their experience and hope. They are words spoken by those whose faith in the Creator transforms or overrules the doubt our experience fuels.

The Psalms really are really the voice of people of faith who understand even if resentfully, that they do not live ordinary, humdrum lives, no matter how much their thirst for equilibrium.

The Psalms challenge Christian thinking. Many try to make them a claim or presage of Jesus Christ. Isaac Watts, the famous hymn writer sought to transform the Psalms to yield a Christian message, see for example the powerful hymn whose setting to Walker's Southern Harmony with harmony by Dale Grotenhuis is one of my favorites, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need (Ps. 23), Our God, Our Help in Ages Past (Ps. 90), From All That Dwell Below the Skies (Ps. 117).  

The Psalms resist such a transformation. We look for other ways to transform them. We want to dismiss the Psalms whose content we dislike, such as 109 and 137. Rather, we want to say that in this new world of Easter People, El Shaddai has eschewed vengeance and embraced compassion, being transformed into a God of Love.

Are these approaches to the Psalms true? Or, should we take the laments and angry questions and pleadings directed to The Holy One as they are written?

Can a Christian find confidence and guidance in the Psalms, even the ones that complain about the (in)justice of the Lord? Are they relevant to us?

Yes, they give good guidance to those who cry out for Christian justice in an unjust world. Unfortunately, guidance such as Psalm 4:4 is not necessarily the guidance an activist desires to hear. 

These Psalms speak not only to the folks in the pews wanting a little peace and quiet. They speak to those who rage against the injustice and displacement in the world.

I am embarrassed to read my social activist friends firing comments such as “Ha ha…I'm in agreement, f*** the police,” or voicing a tit-for-tat post that supports political websites that label a Tennessee politician a murderer for his political views.  Isn't that what some anti-abortionists do to those advocates? I wonder how many minds are closed, how much receptivity is lost by our opponents when Christians toss such invectives at God's children?

This God of Love may not be as different as we want. This compassionate Holy One has also brought some expectations to us.

Psalms are born of the People of Law. Even Jesus, a Jew who was the embodiment of love, spoke in psalm-like anguish to the Holy One. Recall His dying words from the cross, “My God why have you forsaken me!” (Matthew 27:40-50, Mark 15:29-37). This is a lament  spoken by the one who lived perfectly under the Law. 

We know Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law but to complete it (Note the irony that we must live exceeding the greater righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees). Jesus encircled the entire law in the the gospels who quote Jesus as saying the greatest two commandments subsume the entire law.

We should place these words next to the greatest two commandments. do you recall them? Love the Lord with all your heart and soul and body; and the second is like it, love your neighbor as you love your self. But who is my neighbor? Even your enemy is your neighbor.  

The next time you get riled up in righteous anger at a politician or other government representative (in a democracy we are all representatives of, and responsible for the government) and feel the urge to toss an invective, remember anger is permissible but sin is not. Let your anger stoke the fire until you have hot coals of forgiveness to place on the head of the one who angers you. Psalm 4:4-5 provides a loud voice of lament. It is lesson for us all, certainly for me,

"When you are angry, do not sin;

      ponder it on your beds, and be silent on your beds, and be silent. Selah

Offer right sacrifices,

      and put your trust in the LORD.

We should place these words next to the greatest two commandments. do you recall them? Love the Lord with all your heart and soul and body; and the second is like it, love your neighbor as you love your self. But who is my neighbor? Even your enemy is your neighbor.  

We should place these words next to the greatest two commandments. Do you recall them? Love the Lord with all your heart and soul and body; and the second one is like it, love your neighbor as you love your self. But who is my neighbor? Even your enemy is your neighbor.

So get mad at the one promulgating an injustice, but take your anger to The Holy One hoping you may find an effective path to remedy the wrong of your neighbor without sinning yourself.  Selah.
Amen.