Awakenings...

NOTE: Here are this week's sermon notes written in the awe of yesterday's historic election in the United States. I hope if you are in town and would like to stop by, you will join us at 10:30 am on Sunday, November 9th 2008.

It regularly astounds me how the words of our scripture so often relate to the reality of our lives. It almost doesn’t matter whether it is something public or private, political or personal because, once you start listening for the word of the Lord in your life, when the Spirit says “jump,” you do it! Once you have eyes to see or ears to hear, you are awakened and no longer confuse the darkness for the light.

+ And that’s what struck me watching the Presidential election returns on Tuesday with those incredibly long lines and the almost sacramental sense that people brought to the marking of their ballots: there was an awakening.

+ Not the bestowal of God’s favor upon one political party or another – such crude and even blasphemous mumbo jumbo about this or that Moral Majority is always dangerous – just an awakening.

For you see, it was just 40 years ago that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reclaimed the words of the prophet Amos for America: I hate and despise your festivals and solemn assemblies… take away from me the noise of your celebrations… and let justice roll down among you like waters and compassion like an ever-flowing stream. Forty years ago – a biblical number, yes – suggesting something about wandering in the wilderness and fasting, floating on the flood and temptations in the desert.

Forty years of watching, waiting and wondering… and then an awakening – an awakening the Jewish prophet to our generation, Thomas Friedman, put like this: And so it came to pass that on November 4th 2008, shortly after 10 pm Eastern Standard Time, the American Civil War ended as a black man… won enough electoral votes to become president of the United States.

I must tell you that I never thought I would live to see this day – and I am not talking about whether your political party won or lost. It really does not matter to me whether you are a Republican or a Democrat – a socialist or a capitalist – a liberal, a conservative, a neo-con or a technocrat. People will always have differences and disagreements which is why Jesus was explicit in training his disciples:

You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy?' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does, gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. "In a word, what I'm saying is, grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

And that is what Friedman noted in The New York Times – growing up – what I call an awakening. It’s what brought tears to the eyes of Jesse and Oprah in Chicago’s Grant Park, it’s what empowered Senator McCain to be so gracious and hopeful in his concession speech and it’s what inspired even the pundits on both Fox News and MSNBC (and I watched them both) to sit in quiet and reverent awe as America was awakened. Friedman wrote:

Our Civil War may have been decided by the battle of Gettysburg, PA in 1863… but it was concluded 145 years later via the ballot box in that same state… In his famous Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln urged every American to take on “the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far nobly advanced.” That work remained unfinished… for a century and a half: for despite decades of civil rights legislation, judicial interventions and social activism – despite Brown v. Board of Education, Martin Luther King’s crusade and the 1964 Civil Rights Act – the Civil War could never truly be said to be over until America’s white majority actually elected an African- American as president. And this is what happened and that is why we wake up to a different country.

Like I said: there has been an awakening – not perfect, not complete – but clearly connected to justice rolling down like waters and compassion bubbling over like an ever-flowing stream in the desert.

Now, by invoking the words of the prophet Amos, let’s be clear what is at stake. In his day, 750 years before the birth of Jesus, Amos was a simple shepherd who became enraged over the disparity of wealth in ancient Israel. The rich were getting richer, they were literally selling their poor relatives into slavery and they were flirting with serving other gods: greed, sensuality and moral decadence. What’s more, they publically dressed up their selfishness in the words of the Bible, claiming they were honoring God while hating and wounding their own citizens in vicious and mean-spirited acts of gluttony, dissipation and excess. So, this simple farmer and goat herder experienced an awakening in the midst of the injustice and violence and went to the source of the trouble saying:
I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions and I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making and I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me, the Lord, your God? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want – and that’s all I want!

I think that is what Jesus wanted, too. If you look carefully at today’s odd little parable about the 10 bridesmaids with oil lamps, there are two symbols that cry out for interpretation: the bridesmaids and the oil.

+ Scholars suggest that a bridesmaid – literally parthenoi – means a young, pure woman awaiting her wedding – a virgin – one who is chaste and clean and ready to be faithful.

+ In his correspondence with the church in Corinth, St. Paul speaks of those who are faithful disciples of Jesus as chaste virgins – women and men dedicated to one lover – in this case God.

+ Contrast this with how the prophet Hosea speaks of those who sell themselves to the highest bidder, ransom off their deepest commitments to convenience and trade their first love for spiritual compromise: do you remember what word he used? Harlots – whores – those who are wounded and defiled rather than spiritually faithful.

Now let me offer a quick aside here: I’m not very comfortable calling people spiritual virgins or whores. I don’t think such words help any of us advance the cause of getting closer to God but these are the symbols our ancestors used so we have to at least understand them and grasp the truth they point us towards, yes? Ok, so much for bridesmaids – now what about that oil?

There has been real division and confusion throughout the centuries about what the oil in the lanterns represent: some have said faith, some have suggested good works and others think that the oil has something to do with spiritual inspiration. And I am of a mind to side with the latter group and say that the oil in this parable has something to do with spiritual power or even intimacy with God. Think about it:

+ Some of the bridesmaids in this story are foolish and they don’t take time to fill their lamps, right? They don’t nourish their inner lives – they choose not to see the suffering all around them – so they wind up in the dark.

+ And what does darkness often symbolize in the gospels? Ignorance, right? Moral confusion. Spiritual emptiness.

+ The others, however, were wise –prepared – they took their oil with them so that at midnight they were able to make sense out of the darkness and respond. And when the cry, “Here comes the bridegroom” was proclaimed, they were ready, willing and able to do what? Go to the wedding banquet… that other great symbol of blessing and grace and justice and compassion.

America was awakened last week – inspired to grow up – to move beyond our fears and differences toward the light of the wedding banquet. Not the final banquet – and not the only banquet – but a banquet nourished by equality, hope and love. Forty years ago, Dr. King said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” He continued:

Today our scientific power has outrun our moral power and we have become a nation of guided missiles and misguided men… Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true…. But because we are caught in the inescapable web of mutuality… I choose to live a life of love (understanding) that hatred paralyzes life, while love releases it. Hatred confuses life, while love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life but love illuminates it.

This is the challenge of our awakening: what God has inspired, we must nurture. What God has illuminated, we must cultivate beginning with justice, to be sure, but including naming cruelty when we see it, confronting greed and avarice and nourishing real intimacy with the Lord. For in this we will learn to see the face of Jesus in our neighbors as well in those strangers who do not yet look or act or even speak like we do, but whom God has already sent into our lives for the sake of embodied hospitality.

There is an old story told by the ancient Rabbi about how his students once asked how they could tell when the night had ended and the day had begun. “Could it be,” asked one, “when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it’s a sheep or a dog?” No said the wise one. Another asked, “Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it’s a fig or peach tree?” And again the Rabbi answered no.

“Well, then,” they all demanded, “when can you tell that the night has ended and the day begun?” And the Rabbi said, “It is when you can look into the face of any man or woman and see that it is your sister or brother. Because until you can see this, it is still night.” And that is the good news for today.

(NOTE: Does this every say it ALL! Me, too, Jesse, me too!)