Cathedral Day
January 28, 2007; IV Epiphany C
Gracious God,
Let these words be more than words and give us the spirit of Jesus.
Amen.
Several members of your cathedral staff recently had the chance to hear Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, speak. Mr. Fuller’s talk had to do with being faithful followers of Christ all week long, not merely for an hour or two on Sunday mornings. He’s all about walkin’ the talk, allowing the values of the Gospel to permeate all of our attitudes and actions. To make the point, he told several stories about church-folk from his part of Georgia. Some of these folks were heroic and some... well, not so much.
In one decades-old tale, two men (one a native of India, the other a priest from England) decided to attend Baptist services on a Sunday morning. After worship concluded, the visitors spotted a group of men huddled behind the church. The group approached the two to tell them they voted not to beat them up that morning because it was the Sabbath and they were on church grounds. In different circumstances, the newcomers could have expected violence because they broke the rule prohibiting persons of color (my phrasing, not theirs) from entering their sanctuary.
Fuller is baffled by the ability of some to so starkly separate walk from talk. He struggles to understand how people can contort their values in such an unfaithful manner. But Luke, in today’s gospel, reminds us that this behavior is, in fact, fairly common. Jesus comes very close to a bloody end in the synagogue of his hometown, Nazareth. Violence nearly erupted there because he claimed that Isaiah’s ancient prophecy – good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed – was being fulfilled in the present moment. When pressed about his credentials for making such a claim, and in response to being dismissed by those who thought they knew him, Jesus adds fuel to fire by insisting that the healing, saving grace of God is offered to all. Scandal! Heresy! Outrage!
The righteous, it seems, would rather restrict the purview of God, clinging to heavenly promises but resisting their realization on earth. Millard Fuller likened this attitude to one held by those who nod piously when preachers exhort them to love their neighbor but frown and turn away when given the name and address of the particular neighbor they’re called to love. That challenge leads me now to a pertinent aside:
Later this week, a caravan is leaving San Diego to travel the entire length of the US/Mexico border in two weeks. The purpose is to draw attention to the human cost of our current immigration policies and practices. Certainly hundreds, possibly thousands, die in our deserts or canals every year migrating north in search of work as car-wash attendants, busboys, gardeners, and nannies. All faithful people agree that this pattern cannot continue. We’re not of one mind regarding the cure but we all know we must find a better way. That being said, should we assume this act of public witnessing, this encouragement to seek solutions on behalf of the poor, will be well received? The message is simple – love your neighbor – but conflict is predictable. Some of the more ferocious conflict will likely be generated by those who understand themselves to be disciples of Christ Jesus. The members of the caravan, my wife among them, do well to remember the words the prophet Jeremiah offers this morning: “You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” If you’d like to support this witness, you may do so in the simplest possible way: Say the Lord’s Prayer every day at noon for two weeks, beginning this Friday.
Back now to the primary text. Last time I preached, I mentioned a book I’m reading by the Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann. I’m part of a study group, sponsored by a foundation at Princeton, spending this year exploring the theme of “public theology”. Brueggemann doesn’t have kind things to say about self-appointed prophets but he does believe the Bible speaks directly to our social condition. The scriptures call us to alternative practices and a new way of envisioning our place in God’s world. He writes, “The most characteristic neighbor practices of the Christian life are to be understood as acutely counter-cultural, especially generosity, compassion, and forgiveness... These practices amount to a deep challenge to dominant assumptions in our culture... The talk of Gospel is a summons to notice the announcement of new governance. The walk of Gospel is to act as though the new rule of God were in effect, though there continues to be much data to the contrary.”
New governance? Sounds pretty radical, until we note that the very first Christian ruler sought to turn his reign toward the values of the Gospel. In The Life of Antony, a fourth century text chronicling the spiritual exploits of the greatest of the desert fathers, we read, “Antony’s fame spread even to rulers. When Constantine Augustus and his sons... learned of these things they wrote to him as a father and begged to receive responses from him... When the writings were brought to Antony, he called the monks and said, ‘Do not consider it marvelous if a ruler writes to us, for he is a man. Marvel, instead, that God wrote the law for mankind, and has spoken to us through his own Son’... Antony (eventually) wrote in response... He implored them to be men of human concern, and to give attention to justice and to the poor.”
That’s yet another way to say the same thing Jesus said just before his childhood friends tried to pitch him off a cliff, isn’t it? God’s new possibility, God’s governance, God’s empire, is closer to us than we can know or pray for or imagine. The reign of God is at hand. Neighbor-love: good news to the poor, release to the captive, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, generosity, compassion, forgiveness – these are the outward signs of the inward rule of God. The holy purpose of this cathedral is to talk about and walk towards those essential values and central claims of the Gospel.
So this is Cathedral Day, our annual celebration, the Sunday closest to the feast day of our patron, Paul. Few have trod the path of Christ with the intensity or the integrity of Paul. Through vision, persistence, energy, and sheer bull-headedness, he created a community of love that stood in stark contrast to the values of the reigning empire. We celebrate the fact that this cathedral which bears his name, in her best moments, really gets that. We are an alternative community; all are welcome, we hunger and thirst for righteousness (not piously but somehow closer to the earthy, gritty way of Jesus), we seek peace, and (perhaps our best gift from God and to the world) we honor the preciousness and the dignity of every human being.
And because all of that is true, I am deeply honored to be your dean, your brother in Christ, and, I pray, your servant. Amen.
The Very Rev. Scott E. Richardson
January 28, 2007; IV Epiphany C