Thursday, May 24, 2018

"Building Walls or Tables" Festival of Homiletics 2018 Washington D.C.

The penultimate day of the Festival.  A sad day, in a way.  Something good has been happening here.  I'm not completely sure what it was, to be honest.  The real fruit of an experience like this takes a while to ripen.  My prayer as I get ready to leave (but not for home this time - more on that later)is that the Spirit makes sure I heard what I was here to hear, the Word God has for me at this point in my life and life's journey, whether that be a Word for me as a person or a pastor, as a follower or a leader, or a Word I am called to pass on to others, to you, to my church, to my community or world.  My prayer is that this time be fruitful.  And I realize that this is in part up to me.  What do I do with this abundance of knowledge and experience, of wisdom and inspiration.  Eric Barreto, Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton, said this morning that we have two options when we have an abundance, we can build a wall to protect it or build a bigger table to share it.  Personally, I believe the last thing our country needs is more walls.

But the day didn't begin with Dr. Barreto. It began with worship at Metropolitan AME with a sermon from Dr. David Lose, who is pastor of Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, formerly a teacher of preaching at Luther Seminary and the author of my current favorite book on preaching, Preaching at the Crossroads.  Dr. Lose preached from Isaiah 55 (Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat) and from Matthew 20:1-16 (the workers in the vineyard and the first shall be last and the last shall be first) and gave us ... nothing.  

Nothing?  Yeah, nothing.  But not the nothing of insignificance, but the nothing of grace.  In an era of political promises of everything, or the everything that we're told we should want or need, God tells us that nothing is enough.  Seriously.  Nothing is enough.  Read that a couple of time.  There is nothing that will be enough, to serve God, to love God, to honor God, to bribe God, to earn God's favor.  Nothing will get us that.  Read it again.  God says nothing is enough.  You have nothing, let me fill you with all you need.  You didn't work long, let me pay you as if you did.  What do you have that is of ultimate value?  Nothing?  Perfect!  God does some of God's best work with nothing.

From there I took my nothing and went to National City Christian Church, to hear Dr. Anthony Bailey preach on silence.  Hmm, I'm sensing a theme developing.  Bailey is originally from Barbados, but now pastors in Canada at the Parkdale United Church in Ottawa.  And he has a rich tenor singing voice that he used.  Which made sense since he preached from a song text.  It was Mary's song in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:46-55, we call it the Magnificat).  But he was preaching about silence, and referenced Elijah, hiding in the mountain afraid for his life when Queen Jezebel wanted him dead, and how God appeared, not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in "the sound of sheer silence."  (I Kings 19:12).  The sound of silence.  Bailey went back and forth playing with the ideas of sound and of silence.  At times he seemed to be saying find God in the silence.  At other times he said out of the silence comes a song, a song of protest, a song of hope and transformation and God is in that song.  I wanted to raise my hand.  Which is it, Anthony?  Is God in the silence?  Or is God in the song?  But I was afraid the answer was yes.  

That's how I would have answered it.  Yes.  Silence, because we've said too much, been too loud, been too certain about who is right and who is wrong and who is saved and who is damned.  Silence because our shouting and speaking and posting and out tweeting hasn't brought God any closer to the people, and closer to us.  Silence.  Because God dwells in the humility of silence.  God dwells in the absence of self.  The speaking self.  We are too often Homo Loquens - the speaking humans.  And sometimes we need to be silent and let God take root, let God plant a seed in us.  Like Mary.  Let the Spirit come over us in silence and acceptance. Then we can sing a song of protest.  A song of the vision of the Kingdom of God.  Out of silence comes the bridge between this world and the Kingdom of God.

Bridge?  From songs to bridges?  Well, songs are made to be sung together.  Sure the solo is great, but the real show stoppers are the choral numbers where the whole ensemble takes the stage and brings the house down.  And even the spectators tap their feet and sing along, whether they know the words or not, whether they speak the language or not.  And that's what makes it great.

Or so says Dr. Barreto.  He spoke on Preaching and Race.  OK, he's a New Testament guy not a preaching guy.  But he could work on his titles.  Preaching and race.  Yawn.  Except it wasn't a yawner.  It was a protest song to rival Mary's song.  Why is the worship hour the most segregated hour of the week in our country?  What are we missing when certain voices aren't heard?  And how do we celebrate difference instead of asking for conformity?  The Old Testament law is a remarkable document of hospitality and inclusion, why do we focus on the things that divide us?

I know, it's more complicated than that.  But time is running out.  I am due back at National City Church for a special evening service.  The theme is Reclaiming Jesus, and many famous preachers (including Bishop Michael Curry just back from preaching at a wedding somewhere in England) and other Christian leaders are gathering for worship and then a candlelight vigil and march to the White House.  Reclaiming Jesus means that some of us aren't happy with the way Jesus has been co-opted by a segment of the Christian community that wants to emphasize difference as bad, to build walls and not bigger tables, to call some of the human community animals and to claim that things like immigration reform are not biblical issues.  We think some have misrepresented Jesus to the world at large and we want to stand against that.  So, we'll worship and pray, preach and probably sing as we march through the capital city to say Jesus is bigger than some have portrayed.  And I want to be in that number.

Why?  What difference will it make to this issue?  What change will it bring to the struggles in this country over issues of hospitality and acceptance?  Probably none.  It's a foolish act, some will say.  Heck, I'll say it.  It's pretty foolish to think a bunch of preachers ad other Christians marching through Washington singing Jesus songs will make a lick of difference in the world of politics and race.  But as Luke Powery, Dean of Duke Chapel, told us this afternoon, maybe our best bet is to be a fool for Christ.  

And Dr David Lose came back this afternoon to remind us that we like to believe we are Homo Sapiens - Humans who think.  And actually the proper scientific designation is Homo Sapiens Sapiens - Humans who think about our thinking!  But Lose says it isn't our thinking that makes us who we are.  No, he argues, we are Homo Narrans - Humans who tell stories.  It is the story we live by.  It is the story that defines us.  And I am one of those who believes that we as a nation need a better story than the one we are writing at this time.  And I just might know the story we should tell.

Shalom,
Derek
#Homiletics2018

PS.  I neglected to give thanks to the one who allowed me to be here this week and experience all of this stuff I've been writing about.  And it is an especially egregious error because today is our 38th Anniversary.  Happy Anniversary La Donna.  Thank you for who you are and the blessing you are to me.  Love you.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

And happy anniversary to you too ... well worth it just to read the excitement oozing out of these posts!!