This is the sermon I delivered today. It was the hardest one I have had to write because I knew it would make some people in my congregation angry. I kept trying to find ways to modify it, but the Holy Spirit seemed to demand that I keep it largely intact. MP3 of the sermon follows with the text below.
Sermon022711
Beloved, We certainly live in interesting times. In addition to the horrific earthquake in New Zealand and the violence in Northern Africa, protests in our state capitol have now reached a close to two-week mark with no signs of abatement. The Senate Democrats are still out of state, the Assembly passed a bill under some very unusual circumstances, and our Governor accepted an embarrassing prank call. The state and the nation seem to be in a perpetual state of worry. Into this comes Jesus in our Gospel this morning -
“do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?”
But how do we do this? Is God telling us to be lazy and unproductive? Don’t catastrophes, starvation, and other natural disasters shorten the lives of birds and flowers?
The Galileans hearing these words lived in a very harsh reality in a subsistence culture. They were oppressed under the yoke of the Romans, who taxed them heavily without regard for the effect on them or their children. It was no easier for them to hear this than it is for us.
So when Jesus says this is what the kingdom looks like, what is he saying? I think the key is that line, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” This is a good touchstone, a mantra to repeat to yourself. You can only shorten your life by continually worrying. A life lived in fear is a life never truly lived. Just as the birds of the air must go forth and hunt for their food, and the flowers depend on insects for pollination, so we have to go forth boldly without fear and rely on those around us.
Beloved, this has been a difficult week for me. The fear comes mainly from finding myself needing to take a definite side on a political issue due to my understanding of the Gospel and worrying about how that will effect my relationship with those of you who disagree with me. But I am a preacher of the Gospel, and it is my charism to share with you the Gospel as it has shaped me and as I have prayed about it this week. Rest assured, I am all too aware of my own human short-sightedness and prejudices, and I certainly think there is plenty of room for people to disagree.
Last Tuesday, I participated, along with our bishop and several other Episcopal clergy, in an interfaith rally in Madison against the “Budget Repair Bill” that is currently awaiting action in the state senate. This is not something that comes easy to me. I am by no means the sometimes stereotyped "liberal in the pulpit." I have been a registered Republican my entire life. Eisenhower is a favorite president. My first vote was for Ronald Reagan, and I’m still convinced that was a good vote for the times.
Some might say that religion has no place in discussing this situation here in Wisconsin. But while Jesus did not spend his time in open rebellion against the Romans, it’s very hard to say that his teachings have no political implications. One of the things that people thought remarkable about Jesus was his ability to draw in people from all over society, from Jewish rebels to the religious establishment to a Roman Centurion. This was what the authorities criticized him for - being willing to sit down with people that they thought were not worth being listened to. While he was no agitator, his ability to bring people together was a direct threat to the establishment, which relied on being able to distinguish those who were worthy of the benefits of society from those who were not. His treatment of everyone as equals was something completely unacceptable to a violent society that needed those differences in order to sustain itself. His insistence that people need not live their lives in fear went right up against an empire whose rule was based in fear. As one of my colleagues remarked this week, in the Gospel today, Jesus does not ASK to not act out of fear. He COMMANDS us not to do so.
Over the last week, we have seen an overwhelming amount of concern from religious leaders, both conservative and liberal, over the implications and implementation of the budget repair bill. Over 75 leaders have signed the Interfaith coalition’s petition opposing the bill. Some of those leaders, such as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Milwaukee, the Eastern Orthodox, and the rabbis of the Conservative tradition, are not always to be found on this side of the aisle. Most of them, such as Bishop Miller, do not routinely speak out against legislation.
For many of us who are speaking out, it is due to the way in which the bill is being handled. The climate of fear around our fiscal crisis is being used to do many things that seem to have no direct correlation to the crisis. The unions have announced their agreement to fiscal concessions, but there is a refusal to even negotiate from the other side. The removal of legislative control over our state-run health care and centering that authority in the governors office seems to strike at our system of checks and balances. And the revelation that there was real consideration given by the administration to planting troublemakers in among the protestors to cause a disturbance should give everyone pause.
Those of us who follow Jesus are called to emulate his ways. We are not allowed the luxury of dividing the world into “us” and “them.” Absolute rule by a majority is not a Christian value. Nor is lack of charity and compromise. We are called to sit at the table with those we disagree with and acknowledge that the other has a rightful place there. And we are called to make decisions not out of fear, but out of understanding that ultimately God is the one in control of the universe.
The issues that are being debated in this bill have little to do with short-term fiscal policy. I've seen commentators from both MSNBC and Fox news point that out. The way its passage is being handled, which is that there can be no room for compromise or discussion, creates a situation where a significant portion of our population feels they have no input on issues that deeply effect their fundamental rights. The solution of breaking off the contentious issues from the fiscal concessions in order to both solve the immediate budget crisis and to allow for a wider debate outside the capitol chambers seems to be something the administration is not willing to do.
Now, beloved. Of course, you may disagree with me on the actions of our governor or the actions of the unions or the actions of the protestors. And this is the Episcopal Church - I cannot tell you that you have to believe that Jesus speaks to us on this in the way I articulate it.
But if you have not thought about it, spend a minute on this. What WOULD Jesus do in Madison? This is important - we cannot partition off this part of our lives from the living God who sees and judges all, saying, “it’s just politics.” God does not allow politics to be held to a different standard. Part of the command to not fear is to constantly remember that we belong to Jesus’ kingdom, not to the kingdom of this world. For a second, don’t think about what a Republican or a Democrat would do, or what a union supporter or opponent should do, or what the other party did in control, or what you’d like to do or what would be easiest. Those are human arguments. As a minister of the Gospel, my job is to challenge you to ask yourself "how would Jesus handle this?" It is very hard to imagine him supporting a process that involves so much real impact with so little public input at such a breakneck speed without previous notification that these issues were on the table. Those were the kinds of solutions Peter and Judas advocated and which Jesus rebuked them for. Speed was not something Jesus seemed to value, because it is often a pretext to hide fear. He was always annoying the disciples by stopping to show compassion when they thought he should be hurrying along. From our examples in the Gospel, I believe he would tell us to ratchet down the fear several notches, that he would stop everything, that he would command us to sit down with one another, and that he would expect that we would talk and actually listen. Not debate - debate is people talking past each other. He would command us to actually listen and hear the other's point of view.
As for political victory, dominance and power, as Jesus would say, “It is the Gentiles who strive for all these things.” and “You cannot serve two masters.” As followers of him, we are to strive for something different. We are to build a world that puts the Kingdom values of kindness, mercy and forbearance first, even at the cost of our most cherished political beliefs.
David+