Sermon for 24th Pentecost
Held in God’s Hands
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
I was struck this week by a story told by the late, great Congressman John Lewis. Here is what Lewis writes about an incident in his childhood:
"About fifteen of us children were outside my aunt Seneva’s house, playing in her dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed far off in the distance, and suddenly I wasn’t thinking about playing anymore; I was terrified…
Aunt Seneva was the only adult around, and as the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded us all inside.
Her house was not the biggest place around, and it seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed inside. Small and surprisingly quiet. All of the shouting and laughter that had been going on earlier, outside, had stopped. The wind was howling now, and the house was starting to shake. We were scared. Even Aunt Seneva was scared.
And then it got worse. Now the house was beginning to sway. The wood plank flooring beneath us began to bend. And then, a corner of the room started lifting up.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. None of us could. This storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky. With us inside it.
That was when Aunt Seneva told us to clasp hands. Line up and hold hands, she said, and we did as we were told. Then she had us walk as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house we walked, the wind screaming outside, sheets of rain beating on the tin roof. Then we walked back in the other direction, as another end of the house began to lift.
And so it went, back and forth, fifteen children walking with the wind, holding that trembling house down with the weight of our small bodies.
More than half a century has passed since that day, and it has struck me more than once over those many years that our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart.
It seemed that way in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, when America itself felt as if it might burst at the seams—so much tension, so many storms. But the people of conscience never left the house. They never ran away. They stayed, they came together, and they did the best they could, clasping hands and moving toward the corner of the house that was the weakest.
And then another corner would lift, and we would go there.
And eventually, inevitably, the storm would settle, and the house would still stand.
But we knew another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again.
And we did.
And we still do, all of us. You and I.
Children holding hands, walking with the wind. "
Children holding hands, walking with the wind.
I love those wonderful words from John Lewis. And I believe they describe where we all are in these turbulent days in our nation, or, at least, where we would like to be, all “children holding hands, walking with the wind.”
There are so many storms around us – record new cases and still-increasing deaths from COVID-19, a new US President and Vice President elected, but with a nation still very divided politically, economic hardship for so many, and the continued scourge of racial injustice.
In the face of all of this, what are we, what are all people of faith to do?
In his sermon for last Sunday here at Mt. Olive, Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels, Mt. Olive’s Rabbi in Residence, suggested that this is a time, the time to “tell our truths, admit our wrongs, remove the stumbling blocks, and search for paths of reconciliation.” I could not have said it better. That is the task before us all, before our divided nation.
But just how do we do this?
In their book, The Seventh Story, Us, Them and the End of Violence, authors Brian McLaren and Gareth Higgins suggest that we imitate the desire of Jesus and that the desire of Jesus is for us to resemble love as much as possible in our lives.
McLaren and Higgins invite us all to be participants in a great play about the evolution of the story of love, to be friends, not enemies with one another, no matter what anyone else is doing. And then they suggest these ways to resemble love in our lives:
First - Pay attention – they suggest we pay attention to our souls, our neighborhoods, our local and regional stories and surround ourselves with others who will do the same, to nurture our own wellbeing AND that of our communities, to work to serve the common good.
Second - At the same time, they suggest we NOT pay attention – not pay attention to stories of separation, selfishness and scapegoating, withhold attention and money from any media outlet or public figure that uses fear to build an audience.
Third - McLaren and Higgins suggest we should surround ourselves with people who have a sense of the common good, those who see the world’s needs and want to offer healing in and for this world.
Fourth – We should tell the truth. In a world of competing information sources, McLaren and Higgins suggest we seek wisdom above propaganda, that we see the world as our home.
Fifth – We should learn spiritual practices that offer healing and resilience – worship, prayer, study.
Sixth – Higgins and McLaren suggest we try to see things through “the eyes of the other.” To seek friendship with someone with whom we disagree politically, to look for things to praise in others, to learn about building equitable community in which everyone has a fair stake.
And seventh and finally, these authors suggest we all these things with others, and encourage others to join us.
Work to serve the common good, avoid separation, selfishness and scapegoating, surround ourselves with others who seek the common good, tell the truth, nurture our faith, seek out and talk with others with whom we disagree, and do all of this while encouraging others to join us in these tasks.
All to emulate Jesus and to resemble Jesus’ love in our lives.
As many of you know, during this pandemic, I have been hosting a weekly YouTube interview program called “Hope Matters,” a program during which I speak with a variety of people about hope in their lives. These have been rich conversations and I invite you, if you have not already found them, I invite you to find “Hope Matters” on Mt. Olive’s YouTube channel.
One of my favorite quotes about hope came from my friend, the Rev. Rafael Malpica-Padillah, the Executive Director for Global Mission for our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Pastor Malpica-Padillah shared with me his definition of faith and hope, that “faith is the ability to hear the melody of the future” and that “hope is the courage to dance to that tune today.”
Faith is the ability to hear the melody of the future and hope is the courage to dance to that tune today.
I believe that is our task as Christians today and all days – to work to emulate and resemble the love of Jesus in our lives, in faith and hope, as children of God, holding hands, walking with the wind.
If you watched President-elect Biden on television last Friday evening, you heard him quote from one of his, and one of my, favorite hymns, “On Eagle’s Wings,” the chorus of which says that, in all times and seasons, God will “raise you up on eagle’s wings and hold you in the palm of God’s hand.”
And that is our continued assurance in these times and all times, as we try to emulate Jesus’ love in our lives, that we are all today and forever held in God’s loving hands.
Amen.
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
November 15, 2020
