January 9, 2011 "One Thing Matters"

Isaiah 42
Matthew 3:13-17
Recently I was meeting with a young couple about to marry. He was in the military, and after the wedding they would be leaving family and the community they both had grown up in, leaving the State, to be based in Florida or Texas, starting life fresh. They had reserved the Chapel in Auburn, they had their flowers and rings, and cake and invitation, photographer and musicians, they had gone ahead and gotten the marriage license, and now after everything else they were meeting with a minister. In the course of the conversation, they affirmed that one had grown up Lutheran and the other Catholic, so they wanted a “Church Wedding,” but not a “Religious Wedding.” I inquired about the difference and they were clear that they wanted to be married in a Church, that it was important to their families to be married before God rather than by a Justice of the Peace, but Communion and Prayers and all the rest did not matter. I swallowed hard. They described that each of their parents were divorced, and that they could not stand the dogmatic authority of the Church. I risked asking, so after you are married, how are you going to practice your faith They looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language, and I asked “Will you go together to a Catholic Church or Lutheran, or separately, or what?” Without hesitation they boldly stated, “we won't worry about that until we are old and fearing death.”
Suddenly, I realized this was one of the few moments in life when seeds of faith could be planted, and suggested, “So after you get married, you are going to encounter things you never imagined, you will be half a continent away from home and parents and everything you have ever known. Maybe at that time, you will want to have a community, to be surrounded by people with a similar history and values who can support you, because if you wait to try to find faith until you are dying, it may be too late.”

I have a confession to make.
At New Years, I described hoping and praying that this year would be better than the year ended.
In the last year, my Father died, then my Mom, the last several years of family illnesses have been hard on our marriage, hard on family, hard on our faith.
We live in a community that was spared most of the economic lay-offs and unemployment the rest of the nation knew. So what do we pray for... that our 401Ks and IRAs would rebound? How much like praying to idols, is praying for the investment of our money on Wall Street?
We have known many of our sons and daughters who have demonstrated nobility and honor in enlisting to serve our Country, and despite our fears and worries as parents, thank God these have returned home to us safely.
The recent past has been a spiritually dry season, we all go through those times. Times when we are so distracted by all the things going on, that we lose sight of what matters. My confession is that during such a time, I know that in preaching, I have turned to Bible Study and descriptions about The Church, because it was easier and safer.

The last many months, I have had a recurrent dream, after having been led through the basement of the Church I grew up in, I was led up the stairs to the Narthex at the back of the Sanctuary and escorted to a seat in one of the back rows. I recall wondering as a leader why we had not been shown the front pews or the Chancel, and realized first you have to believe and you can always be invited to go higher. Among the most powerful texts to me has been “To whom much is given, much is expected.”
There are times when as a human being, I can be very naïve, we are often blinded by our projections.
I thought that recounting the experience of this church would be occasions for affirmation with the constant realization we can go higher. I thought that every circumstance had been an occasion of faith, but I have come to know that many have turned off at those times, perceiving these were just a listing of accomplishments of the institution, bolstering up the facade of this idyllic community.

About a year ago, someone in great pain made a comment, that has come back over and over again. He described that “Faith is so much easier, when all you have to do is sit back and listen. When you get involved, when you know the behind the scenes of reality, faith is so much harder and more messy.”

While I have known Churches which have read the Velveteen Rabbit, or Watership Down as a sermon; while there are Churches which have political action motivation as the sermon, in this Church, preaching has always been based on Scripture, not because it is religious but as being The Word of God and also based in current events circumstances in our community and world.

We are a 21st Century Post-Modern people, who through literature, through education, are already familiar with the basics of the Biblical stories. We take as fact that Jesus and John the Baptist were contemporaries, and as John called all the people to repent and be baptized, so Jesus was Baptized. Also if we know nothing else about Isaiah, that this Priest/Prophet/Pastor describes this image of a Suffering Servant. The Suffering servant is so familiar, this passage is even quoted by the Gospels as Jesus comes to the Temple to read: that the Blind will see, and the deaf hear and the lame walk.

What as the Preacher I hear in these two texts this morning are first,
that when Jesus was Baptized, the heavens opened up and the Spirit descended on him like a dove. All of the television special effects and computer graphic creations have made the alighting of a dove to be the most graceful and illuminating of events. A Dove is not like an Eagle or Hawk with powerful legs and talons which grasp and land; not like the wren, nuthatch or chickadee who are as comfortable on their legs as in flight; the dove is a pretty cousin to the Pigeon, whose legs can hardly hold up the body's weight let alone the velocity of flight. As a dove comes in to land, it often takes a few extra steps seeking balance, “the heaven descended spirit” crashes in and disturbs. Rather than the Spirit/ Faith floating down and surrounding the Savior with a warm glow; when he was Baptized, all time and space and relationships were changed, heaven was ripped open, and the Spirit of God knocked into Jesus, causing him to question and re-evaluate everything about life as we have known it. So also with us, when circumstances knock us off our balance, we need to question our faith and find a new normal, life is full of faith stories creating a new reality.

Some of us have said, “Pastor I need you to connect the dots. Make faith explicit, help me understand.” When you worked hard putting yourself through to be the first in your family to go to College and to provide for your family, and you discover that your grandchild is failing school, and does not care. What matters is not the Tuition. What matters is not what other people think. What matters, the only thing that matters, is your grandchild finding meaning and purpose in life.
When you are new to a community, and do not have friends, do not yet have routines of knowing where everything is. When you feel very much alone, isolated, intimidated, this is when faith is a companion. When you discover your spouse has been addicted to porn, to going on all those websites; or when they develop an anonymous emotional relationship over the internet, it is a violation, it is a betrayal of self.
When you care for others, and your caring becomes work. When you dress and feed people, who are living out their days, and you come home to feed your own children and undress them for bed...
When suddenly you realize that you cannot do what seemed the simplest things because your spouse needs you, and this is not going to get better but is a chronic condition that will get worse. All these are occasions of the spirit bumping into your reality, and asking about your faith in God.

I said first, because there is a second surprise in the texts this morning. Isaiah's description of the Suffering servant of God who sets free the Captives, and restores sight to the blind, does not lift up their voice, does not cry, will not fail or be discouraged. What I hear in this is not O SUCK IT UP, Suffer in silence, Not at all! But rather, that we need the Silence, as uncomfortable, and prolonged and painful as it often is, in order to recognize what is not from us, what is not distraction, but what is right and what is righteous before God. The Servant Leader recognizes in their own suffering the needs and vulnerability of others. The Servant Leader is not a leader who suddenly dons an apron and serves those who work for them. The Servant Leader identifies with the needs and concerns of others, and lifts these up trying to make a difference in the world. This is not a Savior on a White Horse, but rather a Wounded Healer, who is less concerned with winning, than for making certain the needs of the most fragile are attended to, being certain that the drowning wick is not extinguished, the bent and broken branch is not cut off or lost. Ordinarily, this congregation has a great number of weddings and a great number of baptisms and very very few funerals, but this last week, we have had far more deaths than our norm. What has surprised me in these, is that people who have known great suffering, circumstances that would bring a strong person to their knees, and their families have described “Never did I ever hear them complain.”

How easy it is to become overwhelmed by all the distractions of this life. The news cycle has a fresh tragedy every day. One thing matters, having faith in God.