January 31, 2010

Who are you?? If you said Jesus, that is what happened (more or less) in the story we read today. But I was thinking of John Wesley, actually. He patterned his life and preaching after Jesus and wasn't afraid to take on those who were sent to agitate at his outdoor worship services. These agitators were sent at the behest of the Church of England, which was more interested in order and appearances; the Church didn't want the poor stirred up because of their fear that the order of things would be turned upside down. Wesley spent his whole life–and it was a long one–advocating for social change for the poor, just child labour laws, a shut-down of the gin-mills, employment for all, and many other policies that would speak to his understanding of Jesus' teaching about living the Commonwealth of God. Some historians claim that Wesley and the young Methodist Church saved England from a fate similar to that of France, namely revolution.

It takes a lot of courage to speak truth or love to power, as the common phrase goes these days. Today's gospel story, which builds on last week's story from Luke, is a case in point. Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah, "the Spirit of our God is upon me because has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed and to preach the acceptable year of our God." And then Jesus closed the scroll and sat down and launched his bombshell by saying, "today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Today's reading is the aftermath to this bombshell. But the bomb didn't really go off; the people accepted, at least initially, what Jesus had said. The second bombshell was what this unleashing of the Spirit really meant. It meant that the Jews couldn't rely on being the chosen people; they had to live more fully what Isaiah and the other prophets proclaimed, namely that God had chosen the Jewish people to be a light to the world, a light of love, a light of peace, a light of the way of reconciliation. It was not an exclusive calling where they were in and everyone else was out. And Jesus dared to say this, in his own hometown, in front of his own people. And they were mad, mad enough to want to take him out to a hill and throw him off. But full of the holy Spirit, Jesus walked through the crowd and took up his preaching ministry.

At the Epiphany Explorations Conference in Victoria this past weekend, one of the speakers at the conference was Leonard Sweet, a United Methodist from the US. In three talks–sermons, really–he challenged not just the United Church, but the whole Church to wake up to the new realities in which we find ourselves. Sweet spoke very provocatively and contended that we live in a very different world from what most of us are used to, and by "most of us" he meant those of us born before 1973, or BC Christians, as he put it–Before Computers. AC Christians, (After Computer Christians) according to Sweet, view the world very differently. This is the whole of idea of post-modernism. Sweet challenged the church to see the TGIF world in which we live–Sweet loves acronyms. What does TGIF stand for? We usually think of Thank God It's Friday. But Sweet said that TGIF stands for Twitter, Google, Internet and Facebook. "We live in a post-modern, AC, TGIF world and we'd better deal with it," he said. I know that there were more than a few people who reacted quite strong against what Sweet was saying.

But more broadly, Sweet claimed that the Church needs to become less complacent and comfortable. We need to embrace the gospel more fully and challenge the status quo, speak truth and love to power, and be the disciples of Jesus that we are called to be. We must read the signs of the times and see where God is and where God's love needs to be proclaimed. It might be, as Sweet states, that God has moved beyond the Church and is out there in the world. We, as the Church, had better catch-up and read the signs of the times.

While I agree with Sweet that the Church needs to do a better job of reading the signs of the times and that we get comfortable and complacent, I don't believe that God has abandoned us. I do believe that we need to open our eyes to witness and grasp hold of the love of God. And I do believe that God expresses that love in new ways and often outside of the Church, but the love is there. Jesus wasn't always about critique and challenge. Jesus balanced his message with love, reconciliation and forgiveness–with grace! Jesus could be very critical of oppression and injustice, and we still need to be, but he understood that God is not one to beat folk over the head with a club, even if it is the club of righteousness. The gospel is love and we are challenged and moved by love.

Jesus took his cues from the prophets. What are we told at the end of the call of Jeremiah the prophet? "I have put my words in your mouth. See I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and break down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." That last bit is critically important. What would be left if all we were called to do as the Church was to destroy and overthrow, and to pluck up and break down? The prophets recognized that we need to build also, and to plant new seeds of love. Sometimes the breaking down is painful, and we need to learn a new way. But this is never done without love and without grace. We, as a Church, as a society, as a culture, as a world, are loved into change.

Sweet told a story that underlines this gospel challenge of love very well. Some years ago, Sweet was asked by the leaders of a refugee camp in South Africa to come and speak to them, to be with them. Sweet liked to take his children with him on trips around the world and so he took his son, who was aged 9 or so at the time. They visited the camp, met with elders, offered words of wisdom where he could, received words of wisdom in turn. At the end of his visit, there was to be a communal banquet to honour him. He attended with his son and they were seated on the stage. The Mayor of the refugee camp made some statements and it was time to eat. Now, as Sweet described this banquet, he said it produced a dilemma for him. African cultures often eat communally. There was a pot full of bread; there are no utensils–no forks, spoons or napkins–you use bread to eat. There was a pot full of meat and gravy. As Sweet was telling this story, he said that the refugee camp was a challenging place; the incidence of AIDS was very high, as well as the flu and other communicable diseases. How you ate was that you would take a piece of the bread, and dip the bread into the pot of meat and gravy, but since the meat was at the bottom, you dug deep with your bread in this communal pot. His son whispered to him and asked, "do I have to do this?" Sweet, thinking of all that could happen disease-wise, said he had a moment. He thought of his wife, the mother of their son. He thought of all that could happen. He thought of the gospel and honour and what might happen if he and his son refused to eat. In the end, he said there was no question for him. The Mayor went first, a couple of other dignitaries followed and then it was Sweet and his son's turn. Each person took the bread, dug deep into the pot of meat and gravy and ate. Sweet said that there was a rather anxious phone call later that day to his wife.

Love leads us into some difficult places and sees us through. Love tears down the barriers that we erect around ourselves; love destroys that which hates and that which breeds oppression and injustice. Love opens us to experience the life-transforming gift of the Spirit and of grace. Love builds and plants seeds. Sweet planted seeds of hope that day. Wesley planted seeds of hope in England during a dire time in that country's history. Jesus planted seeds of hope while proclaiming the challenge of the Gospel of love and grace. The world has been planting seeds of hope in Haiti through aid organizations, Churches and faith-based communities and hopefully this will bear fruit in the years to come. Where will love lead us, I wonder, as a congregation and as a Church? Where is love calling us to tear down, plant new seeds and rebuild?

Questions for us to ponder.

Amen.