The only thing that is
clear on this Sunday after Election Day is that we are a deeply divided nation. The chairman of the Steuben County Republican
party said, “The people have spoken.”
Well, some of the people have spoken, not a majority of them even, but
our system of electing a President is what it is, and we have to move on.
My interest this morning
is asking, what is the task of Christian people like you and me in this deeply
troubled place and time? The readings we
just heard point us in some clear directions.
I think they tell us three things.
First of all, everyone
has a part to play, everyone has to contribute.
The church to which Paul was writing in the text this morning was in a
very troubled place, as increasingly were all Christians as the faith began to
spread throughout the Roman Empire.
I’m sure most of your
ears perked up when you heard the well-known statement of Paul:
Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.
This verse has been used
to criticize social welfare programs, and it seems to state a conviction held
by many that a lot of people are milking the system by being unwilling to work. It’s important that Paul chose his words
carefully, because “unwilling” is not the same word as “unable.”
Paul is conjuring a
vision of a world here, a world where all contribute not for the sake of
themselves, but for the sake of all. Underneath this seemingly easy to
understand statement about work is the biblical vision of neighborliness.
Walter Brueggemann says,
The church…is a body of folk who believe
that in Jesus a new world has begun, a new world of generosity and forgiveness
and hospitality and justice. Church folk are those who by their lives and their
actions give evidence of the new world.[1]
This new world does not
break into our old world without everybody who is called by God to participate
does so.
On to the second thing
these readings have to tell us about living beyond November 8: Watch
your mouth! Our tongues can be tools
of building one another up or tearing one another down. I think we can all agree there was plenty of
“tearing down” language in this election. We rely increasingly on channels of
communication that lend themselves to the language of tearing down. Social
media can be anything but social; it can also be a minefield of things said
that would rarely be said face to face.
Paul says to the
Thessalonians, Watch what you say! Watch what you talk about, watch how you
talk about it, and watch how you say it. Say anything you want, I think Paul
would say, but expect to be responsible for what you say, for what you say and
how you say it has consequences.
In this morning’s Gospel
reading, Jesus has something better for our mouths to do. This is a tough
Gospel reading. Jesus warns us about the times of tribulation that will come
among us, and he names just about everything except poisonous water in Flint,
Michigan, which would have been there if he had known it.
He says that there will
be people who will use these times of crisis to put themselves forward as
saviors. “I am he! I can fix this!” Do not run after them. It might get so bad,
he says, that they will throw you in jail because you refuse to follow. In all
of this potential craziness, you have one job:
This will give you an opportunity to
testify.
Again, back to
Brueggemann:
Christians are people who tell the truth
they know about the rule of God that challenges all of our old practices and
about the implications of that new rule of God for all kinds of policy
questions from health care to immigration policy and all of those tough issues.[2]
Affecting how we use our
mouths is the fact that our commitment is first and foremost to the truth into
which Jesus leads us, whether that agrees with the majority position, or our
favorite ideology or political party.
Those things are all like the Temple. They are temporary. They will all
be thrown down.
So watch your mouths.
This is a time when telling the truth with respect and humility matters a great
deal.
The third thing these
readings give us is the imperative to live in hope. Again, Brueggemann,
Live in hope. Live in the sure
conviction that God’s promise for the world can be resisted and can be delayed,
but it cannot be defeated.[3]
We must be careful here.
Hope and optimism are not the same thing. To be perfectly honest, I am not very
optimistic about the immediate future of our country, but the hope I have for
the world cannot be shaken. The vision
the prophet Isaiah gives us this morning of the new world that God wishes to
create with us remains my vision.
Notice Isaiah’s vision
is not of heaven. He dreams of a new heaven, but doesn’t describe it. What he does describe is a new earth vision,
and it is not an ancient, and therefore outdated vision. It is a vision for us. A vision of
A new way of living together, a new economy, if you will:
They shall
build houses and inhabit them;
They
shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They
shall not build and another inhabit,
They
shall not plant and another eat.
In other words, an economy of plenty, not scarcity, where generosity,
not hoarding reign.
A new way of health care
No more shall there be in it
An
infant that lives for a few days,
Or
an old person who does not live out a
lifetime.
An entirely new environment and way of being together for God’s
creatures
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
The
lion shall eat straw like the ox;
But
the serpent—its food shall be dust.
The serpent is the temptation to go it on our own, every man or woman
for him or her self. That is not the
reign of God.
We have been given our
way of life to practice after this Election, and it’s the same life we have
always been called to live. It is a life
in which
·
We know ourselves
to be accountable, not just for ourselves, but for the neighborhood. We are
called to contribute to the well-being of all.
·
We take
accountability for how our words and actions tear down or build up, and commit
ourselves to speaking primarily the truth that Jesus has taught us and the way
he has taught us, not the way of social media or 24-hour news.
·
We stubbornly
live in hope with a vision that is able to lift us out of fear and despair.
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