Second Sunday after Epiphany,
Yr. C, January 20, 2013
Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10;
1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11
Sermon preached at St.
Stephen’s Episcopal Church
I
was interrupted as I was beginning my sermon writing yesterday by my dog
barking ferociously in the driveway.
When I ran down the stairs and opened the door, I saw my dog holding off
two women in long black coats at the end of the driveway. They stood there
looking warily at the dog, but not concerned enough to be scared off completely.
I called my dog inside, and looked at the two women. I knew instantly who they were. They were Jehovah’s Witnesses.[1]
After
the dog was safely inside, they walked up the driveway to my door. The older women introduced the two of them,
and said that they had visited our house before. They had spoken to Mary Ann (me) and Nancy,
and we had a little girl. I smiled to
myself, knowing that if they had talked with Nancy, it had likely been a very
short conversation. “Hello”, I
said. “I’m Mary Ann.” The older women, Sherry, mentioned that they
had the current edition of their Watchtower magazine with them, and would be
happy to share it with me if I liked. I
took one happily, always interested to see what others are thinking these days.
As
Sherry handed me the magazine, she mentioned all the chaos in the world of late
… the shootings in Newtown, CT, and in Webster … the hostage crisis in Algeria
… the shooting in the theater in Aurora, CO .
The topic of the Watchtower this month was “Should You Fear the End of
the World?” I expected to hear a lot
about Armagedon and our fiery demise.
But we began a very interesting conversation about the coming of God’s
kingdom, about what they believed that meant and what I thought about it. We talked about God’s role in the coming
kingdom, and our responsibility. We
talked about how the innocent so often pay the price of evil in our world. We disagreed on several points of scriptural
interpretation, but isn’t that the best part of a discussion? Hearing another’s person’s point of view, and
re-evaluating our own.
One
thing all three of us agreed on was that God’s dream for the world didn’t
include a violent end to it. We agreed
that God’s dream for all creation was one of peace and justice. God wanted us all to be One. They believed that that dream would become
reality when God acted in one big cataclysmic event. If they’re right, I thought, then I wish God
would get a move on! How much worse do
things have to get before God jumps in and takes appropriate action? I suggested that perhaps the kingdom was
coming into fruition all the time through God’s action in humanity. Not the quickest or most efficient method, I
admit … but maybe God isn’t interested in the quickest means to an end. Gandhi taught that the means to an end are
just as important as the end you want.
Be the change you seek, he taught.
Maybe we need to change in order for the world to change. We need to become more peaceful in order for
the world to become a more peaceful place.
We need to act.
They
thought about that. If that were true, Sherry
offered, then why isn’t the kingdom here?
There must be more than individual human action involved? Indeed.
But are we all acting? How often
do we take the time to talk seriously about our faith with other people? And how often do we consider what that faith
calls us to do in our lives.
In
our gospel today, Jesus is at a wedding in Cana with his friends and
family. His mother approaches him and
tells him, “They have no wine”. Jesus is
nonplussed. “What’s that to you or
me?” He asks. It wasn’t their wedding. They didn’t have anything to lose if the wine
ran out. So what? Clearly, Jesus is reluctant to do
anything. It is not his time. His
mother tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” She doesn’t tell Jesus to do something. She doesn’t tell the servants Jesus will fix
everything. She just tells Jesus the
situation and instructs the servants to follow his directions. It’s all really up to Jesus. It’s up to him to discern the need and to
decide if and how he might respond to it.
He has a choice.
In
1955 on the night Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus Martin
Luther King, Jr. was elected to lead the Montgomery bus boycott by the local
NAACP. He was young and new to the
city. He hadn’t made any enemies yet.[2] He had every reason to say, “no”. I have colleagues who tell me that Dr. King
was reluctant to become a public figure in the civil rights movement. But friends close to Dr. King convinced him
that it was “time”, and they felt he was the right person to do the job. So he began 13 years of work for civil rights
in America, a fight that was deeply grounded in his faith and in nonviolent
resistance. A fight that ended up costing
his life.
“Our goal in the Civil Rights Movement was not to injure or destroy
but to build a sense of community, to reconcile people to the true oneness of
all humanity,” said Rep. John Lewis. “African Americans in the 60s could have chosen to arm themselves,
but we made a conscious decision not to. We were convinced that peace
could not be achieved through violence. Violence begets violence, and we
believed the only way to achieve peaceful ends was through peaceful
means. We took a stand against an unjust system, and we decided to use
this faith as our shield and the power of compassion as our defense.
“And that is why this nation celebrates the genius and
the elegance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s work and philosophy. Through the
power of non-violent action, Dr. King accomplished something that no movement,
no action of government, no war, no legislation, or strategy of politics had
ever achieved in this nation’s history. It was non-violence that not only
brought an end to legalized segregation and racial discrimination, but Dr.
King’s peaceful work changed the hearts of millions of Americans who stood up
for justice and rejected the injury of violence forever.”[3]
The
women who came to my door clearly recognized what so many of us do. Violence in our society has reached new
heights. The younger woman said, “It’s
not just the guns. It’s in our
politics. Look at how hard it is for us
to reach any kind of compromise.” Our
political parties seem to thrive on opposition.
We can’t get much done without demonizing the other side. Achieving real compromise is seen as a sign
of weakness, of giving in to the other side.
The idea that compromise means give and take on both sides seems old
fashioned, and out of date. Look at our
corporate economy … people aren’t valued anymore. Decisions are made based on profit and
loss. When people are laid off at work,
they find out an hour before they leave at the end of the day. They’re escorted to their office where they
gather their things and then walked out of the building. Our distrust of one another is at an all time
high. Is this the kind of society we
want? Is this the kind of society God
dreams for us? Violence begets violence, and … the only way to achieve
peaceful ends is [was] through peaceful means.
Peace
isn’t something that we will achieve in an instant. Real peace begins when we find ways to
communicate in non-violent ways. Peace
begins to take hold when we commit ourselves to the good of the whole, to seek justice
in our own communities and in our own relationships. Peace takes root when we let go of fear …
whether it’s the fear of our nation rising up against us and not having the
weapons to defend ourselves, or the fear of not being heard and valued in a
diverse world. Fear confronts us
all.
Jim Wallis has this to
say. “The world is not full of good and bad
people; that is not what our scriptures teach us. We are, as human beings, both
good and bad. This is not only true of humanity as a whole, but we as
individuals have both good and bad in us. When we are bad or isolated or angry
or furious or vengeful or politically agitated or confused or lost or deranged
or unhinged — and we have the
ability to get and use weapons only designed to kill large numbers of people —
our society is in great danger.”[4] Peace is almost
impossible.
As people of faith we need to do things differently this
time around. We need to demand new
conversations about guns and their place in a peaceful world. We may be reluctant to do that, like Jesus or
Martin Luther King, Jr., but now is the time.
Peace
begins within us, and is spread through us.
God’s dream for us is peace, but that peace will elude us if we are
always reluctant to act, or even talk about the difficult issues of the
day. After the shootings in Newtown, CT Jim
Wallis’ 9-year old son said this. “I think that
they ought to let people who, like licensed hunters, have guns if they use them
to hunt. And people who need guns — who need guns for their job like policemen
and army. But I don’t think that we
should just let anybody have any kind of gun and any kind of bullets that they
want. That’s pretty crazy.”[5] If we are
followers of Jesus … if we want peace … shouldn’t we talk about it?
Amen.
[1] Jehovah’s Witnesses – Who We Are: “We come from hundreds of ethnic and language
backgrounds, yet we are united by common goals. Above all, we want to honor Jehovah,
the God of the Bible and the Creator of all things. We do our best to imitate Jesus
Christ and are proud to be called Christians.
Each of us regularly spends time helping people learn about the Bible and God’s Kingdom.
Because we witness, or talk, about Jehovah God and his Kingdom, we are known as
Jehovah’s
Witnesses.” From JW.ORG
Jehovah’s Witnesses,
http://www.jw.org/en/.
[2] Martin Luther
King, Jr. A mini-biography. Bio.true story.
http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-9365086?page=3
[3] Fr. Jonathan's Blog: Reflections on life and
ministry on the Capitol Square of Madison.
God, MLK and Guns-updated,
January 19, 2013, http://gracerector.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/god-mlk-and-guns/.
[4] God’s Politics: A Blog by Jim Wallis and friends. The NRA's Dangerous Theology by Jim Wallis 01-17-2013 | 9:55am. http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/01/17/nras-dangerous-theology.
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