Sermon Preached at St. Mark's Episcopal Church
Luke 3:1-6
This week I was standing in Anna’s office
bemoaning the need to preach after yet another week of violence. In fact, I was complaining out loud about
it! And then, in the midst of my
complaint I stopped. And I looked over
at Anna and admitted with some embarrassment that perhaps Jesus was pretty sick
of it all too! After all, the world in
which he lived was not overflowing with love and peace for all. The world in which he lived, in which he
taught and prayed and healed and preached was a world not too unlike our own. And
that is precisely the world God chose to enter, precisely the world God came to
heal.
Today’s Gospel reading could not
make it clearer that Jesus entered a politically, religiously, socially, and
economically divided world – “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor
Tiberius.”[i] According to PBS’ The Roman Empire in the
First Century, Tiberius’ “political inability, poor judgment and jealousy led
Rome into a dark age of political purges, murder and terror.”[ii] Tiberius was not trusted and, in fact, was
outright resented by the Roman Senate and throughout his career his “position
was weak.”[iii]
“. . .When Pontius Pilate was governor of
Judea.”[iv]
Pontius Pilate finds his way into our creed. But who was he? As Roman prefect,
Pontius Pilate “commanded Roman military units, authorized construction
projects, arranged for the collection of imperial taxes, and decided civil and
criminal cases . . . [He] had numerous confrontations with his Jewish
subjects.”[v]
When the Jews protested his actions, “Pilate threatened [them] with
death.” According to Philo who wrote in
the early first century, “Pilate’s lack of concern for Jewish sensibilities was
accompanied . . . by corruption and brutality.”[vi]
In fact, complaints of excessive cruelty may have resulted ultimately in his
removal from office and his exile in France.[vii]
“Herod was ruler of Galilee . . .
his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and
Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene.”[viii]
These related men ruled in a turbulent period of history. Little is known about
them individually, with the exception, of course, of Herod himself whom history
has described as “a madman who murdered his own family” and one “prepared to
commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition.”[ix]
The point the gospel writer seems
to take pains to point out in this single verse is that the world into which
Jesus would enter was a world filled with chaos, uncertainty and great
violence. So while I may selfishly prefer to stand here and preach sermon after
a week of peace and justice throughout the world, that is not the world God came to save. God came to save a world exactly
like the one you and I are living in. A
world filled with fear and violence, vitriolic rhetoric on all sides, and great
uncertainty about the path forward. This is exactly where we find God with
us. In the midst of this turmoil.
And into this world, God sent John
the Baptist to “Prepare the way of the Lord” by “proclaiming a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”[x] And every one of us is challenged to hear
this proclamation of repentance. The
news, Twitter feeds, Facebook posts have all been filled with hate and finger
pointing this week. Blame the Muslims,
blame the NRA, blame the legislature, blame the lack of care for the mentally
ill, blame ISIS, blame, blame, blame. My
brothers and sisters in Christ, it is a perfect setup. “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that
kingdom cannot stand.”[xi]
We are called to repent. All of us. We are called to forgive. All of us.
We are called to prepare the way for Christ to enter our lives
again.
I picked up a copy of the autumn
issue of Plough Quarterly, a
relatively new publication. What caught
my attention was an article called, “Learning to Love Boko Haram.” Love Boko Haram? Love this group of militants who kidnap young
girls, who murder Christians and non-cooperating Muslims, who in March of this
year pledged allegiance to ISIS? Love? Really?
Really. Prepare the way for Christ to enter. Repent. All of us. Forgive. All of us.
In her article “Learning to Love Boko Haram,” Peggy Gish states that of
the 276 girls who were abducted in April 2014 by Boko Haram, 178 belong to EYN,
the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria.
This is significant because the Church of the Brethren, like other
Anabaptist churches is rooted in “pacifism – a conviction for which Anabaptist
churches have often paid dearly, targeted repeatedly for refusing to perform
military service or to take up arms in self-defense during times of unrest.”[xii] According to Gish, as of June of this year,
“over ten thousand EYN members have been killed, and more than 170,000 members
. . . have been displaced within Nigeria or in neighboring countries.”[xiii] And yet, true to their commitment to
pacifism, members have continued “to witness to the peace and forgiveness of
Christ’s way, even toward their enemies.”[xiv]
In our own tradition of
Anglicanism, pacifism has generally been rejected except as “vocational
witness” which we describe as “the renunciation of violence . . . not as a
universal obligation but [as] a specific calling that bears witness to the
larger ends of God”[xv]
- such is the nature of the work of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, for example. So, while we do not renounce violence across
the board, we do, like the Anabaptists, take repentance and forgiveness
seriously. And, there are times when the
juxtaposition of violence, repentance and forgiveness come together in ways
that are uncomfortable – actually, downright painful.
For me, it is when I learn of 14
more people killed violently in the United States and my immediate reaction is
to seek out the vitriolic speech of the right wing, to point my finger of
blame, to feel self-righteous while, at the same time, ignoring my own tendency
to vitriolic speech for “my side” of the argument. And so I am challenged on a daily basis to
find a way to live out my baptism – to live out my calling to “prepare the way
of the Lord” – by ensuring that even when faced with those who do not share my
solution to a problem, my version of justice and peace among all people, that
I, nonetheless, treat all people – perhaps especially those with whom I
disagree - with the dignity and respect that I have promised them in my
baptism. That I continue to seek and
serve the Christ within them, loving my neighbor as myself. That is, at least
in part, what repentance, reconciliation and forgiveness are about.
Peggy Gish shares this exchange
with a group of militants from Boko Haram with an EYN member named Rebeccah:
“Twenty
militants surrounded her, and one told, her ‘OK, we’re going to kill you.
Aren’t you scared?’
‘No,’ she answered. ‘I’m not scared.
Even if I die, I know where I am going – to heaven.’
‘Where are the Boko Haram going,’ he
asked her in return, ‘to heaven, or to hell?’
‘I don’t know, but I’m praying for you
to go the right way. You always have a second chance. In one second, you can
change your life and go to heaven.’
He responded, ‘You’re a good person. We
will not touch you.’ Acknowledging that she was giving food and supplies to
Muslims he added, ‘Go and do your work!’ As she left, Rebecca told them she
would pray for them.”[xvi]
So this morning I continue to grieve the loss of the 14
lives that were taken this week in southern California and to pray for their
souls – for Robert Adams, Isaac Amanios, Bennetta Betbadal, Harry Bowman,
Sierra Clayborn, Juan Espinoza, Aurora Godoy, Shannon Johnson, Larry Daniel
Kaufman, Damian Meins, Tin Nguyen, Nicholas Thalasinos, Yvette Velasco, and
Michael Raymond Wetzel. And, while
admittedly more difficult for me, I pray for the souls of the two who committed
this act of violence – Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.
And this morning I pray for those
who hold vastly different views from mine on how these atrocities can be
prevented in the future. And my prayer
is that God might touch their hearts and mine so that we might together find a
path forward that will help us, especially in this season of Advent, to
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight . . .[so that] all flesh
shall see the salvation of God.”
My brothers and sisters in Christ,
“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as
yourself?” If so, answer, “I will, with
God’s help.” And “will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and
respect the dignity of every human being?” If so, answer, “I will, with God’s
help.”[xvii]
“Grant, O Lord, that we who have been
baptized into the death of Jesus Christ your Son may live in the power of his
resurrection and look for him to come again in glory; who lives and reigns now
and forever. Amen.”[xviii]
[i]
Luke 3:1.
[iii]
Ibid.
[iv]
Luke 3:1.
[v]
Douglas Linder, “The Trial of Jesus: Key Figures,” Famous Trials, University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law,
2002 accessed on December 4, 2015.
[vi]
Ibid.
[vii]
Ibid.
[viii]
Luke 3:1.
[ix]
Ken Spino, "History Crash Course #31: Herod the Great". Crash Course in Jewish History,
2010, accessed December 4, 2015; “Herod I” at
Jewish Encyclopedia accessed December
4, 2015.
[x]
Luke 3:3-4.
[xi]
Mark 3:24.
[xii]
Peggy Gish, “Learning to Love Boko Haram: A Nigerian Peace Church Responds,” Plough Quarterly (Autumn 2015, No. 6),
13.
[xiii]
Ibid., 13-14.
[xiv]
Ibid., 14.
[xvi]
Gish, 19.
[xvii]
“The Baptismal Covenant,” The Book of
Common Prayer, 305.
[xviii]
Adapted from “Prayers for the Candidates,” The
Book of Common Prayer, 306.
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