The End of Apathy November 9, 2008

Joshua 24:1-4, 14-25
Matthew 25:1-13
On Election Day, Veteran Commentator Tom Brokaw, used this phrase to describe the mood of the Nation, the mood of the World...THE END OF APATHY.

As much as we harken to images of Pilgrims and Washington at Valley Forge, within our memories, We are a People that out of the embers of Depression forged new industry in Agriculture and Steel. This is a people that in time of War and Oppression took up arms and sacrificed, not only of rubber and luxuries, but of our own sons and daughters. Out of that time, we became a Nation of new Ideals, Hopes and Dreams, which on a day in Dallas in November were killed. And if the assassination of our President were not enough, this was followed with the killing of Martin Luther King and another Candidate for the Presidency. The killing of idealism, hopes and dreams, in VietNam and Watergate and one scandal upon another. Like Joshua, we claim identity as a people who have wandered in the wilderness for forty years. There have been great accomplishments, the landing and return of men on the moon, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, the End of Apartheid. But the history making event of this week, was not only the electing of the first President from Hawaiian descent, but a record number of our Countrymen going to the Polls to exercise their responsibility for an end to Apathy.

Forty-Four Million Americans cast their ballots even before Election day. And another Hundred Million People made their decision in the next sixteen hours. The point is not whether you voted for this candidate or that, whether your party won this time or not, but that after a long season of apathy and complaint, people exercised their right to choose. Flipping a little lever, pulling a handle made not be as dramatic as standing before the Nation to declare “CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE, AS FOR ME and MY HOUSE WE CHOOSE THE LORD!” But Joshua's point, and that of Jesus in this Parable, are that THE END OF APATHY does not come in singular acts of commitment, but throughout a life.

Jesus compares The Kingdom of God to a Wedding. With the Bernazzani's second child's first birthday this morning, we remember her parents wedding and the beginning of the Act of Giving Your Hands in Marriage; and the giving of a Rose for times of stating our Commitment, that I Love You, I Forgive You; but also in A Wedding we declare to one and all, that while this day, this act of Commitment is the fulfillment of all your plans and ideas, hopes and dreams, the end of separate lives and the beginning of marriage, A WEDDING is the first day of a life of commitment, a life of sharing, no matter what.

In telling the parable, Jesus names some as Wise and some as Fools. All the Bridesmaids know it is a Wedding, they all come out with their lamps to greet the ones coming. All the Bridesmaids fall asleep, because the return is much later than any expected, and in the darkest part of our night. BUT some were prepared for a long night of waiting with deep reservoirs to draw from no matter how long it takes, and others were not.
This is a PARABLE and not AN ALLEGORY, for an Allegory has every element represent something else, and a Parable only needs to emphasize a conviction, a single point. The oil represents commitment, a depth of resolve that permits making a SACRIFICE of ALL one has. We want to read into this, shouting “But as Christians should the ones with oil not share with those who ran out?” But the point of this as a PARABLE is that if you and your neighbor each were asked to sacrifice what is most dear to you, how could your neighbor loan you what you would sacrifice? First you have to go and find what what you care about and are committed to.

Our culture no longer understands the word “SACRIFICE”, let alone the idea. We imagine giving a single canned good, cleaning out the spoilage from our pantry, or the loose coins from our pocket for the Salvation Army, as SACRIFICE. A Sacrifice is not something you can buy, not something you can earn, not a thing for a shelf, not made by simply showing up for life, or by putting in your time even in so noble a cause as the military, or a political campaign, or earning a living by inventing a cure for baldness. A SACRIFICE is not measured in value, or size. SACRIFICE come to us, from the simple pure understanding that God loved the World so Much, God Gave us God's Only Begotten Son. God traded being God for being one with us, having the miracle we take for granted, LIFE: breathing, witnessing the world around us as part of Creation, sharing and loving others, and as precious as that life, God gave God's own life for us.

Joshua makes the point, the people misunderstood in the Ten Commandments... GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD. Do not make this Commitment, if you are not prepared to follow through. Like us, the people declare, WE BELIEVE. To hold the people accountable, Joshua asks if they will be witnesses for one another, and the people say “We DO!” Then Joshua takes up a Rock, saying MAY THIS ROCK BE A WITNESS! And like us, some scoff, “How can a rock be a witness?” But as someone had inscribed on a rock for me at a birthday this summer, “FIFTY YEARS IS NOT A LONG TIME IF YOU ARE A ROCK!”

I love old movies, not just the ones from the 1970s or the 50s, but the Classic old Black and Whites. The other day, I came across a Gary Cooper Film: “MEET JOHN DOE”, not John Dau, but John Doe. While a Romance, and Political Intrigue, the film centers upon a man, a common ordinary outofwork John Doe. The story is that this man is so sick of AMERICA'S APATHY, our INHUMANITY, at Midnight on Christmas Eve, he would throw himself off a building as a protest. We live in a small town, why is it we hardly know our neighbors, walking passed them, resenting their being in our way? John Doe describes what a powerful force the John Does of this world would be, if they all decided to not be APATHETIC any longer, to take an interest in one another, to care about each other. You could not pick a John Doe out of the Crowd, that is the whole point, a John Doe is every common person, the shop keeper, the one who reads our electric meter, the lady in the cafeteria lunch line, each one doing their part in this world. What if, instead of ignoring each other, passing by one another as common, we reached out to one another, took an interest in them as precious.

As a congregation, we are blessed, blessed not only to be free of debt, to have a marvelous music program, to have this church as a center for community life, to have witnessed miracles throughout this year, but blessed to have the opportunity to baptize so many each year. AND Occasionally, to stop as we do so to recognize and remember what we have committed to do. For a Baptism is not simply the parents and the Pastor, but the whole congregation, every one of us committing to pray for this child of God.

On this Veteran's Weekend, I recall a time a few years ago, where we handed a baptized baby to a Special Forces Green Beret and asked him to carry the child as we vowed to pray for this child of God, and another who was going to prison who also carried the child as we vowed to pray for them. This child this day, could have been born in a war zone, like his parents before him. He could have been born in a world without any of the infrastructure we take for granted. It is ironic, that what we have been trying to do at the Clinic this year, what all the foundations around us in this community are working towards is establishing and building “SUSTAINABILITY”. To transition from a brilliant idea, to an on-going commitment that will self-generate for generations to come. We live in a time in human history, where the old infrastructure needs to be replaced, where old institutions no longer match our needs. Like Edison and Henry Ford, we are challenged to create new ideas, to forge new commitments, not simply for today, but to change the world for all time to come.

Usually around our house, I check with my spouse and kids before making a monumental decision, but in this case, like Joshua before me: “As for me and my household, we will choose the Lord!”