Preached November 5, 2006

Plymouth Congregational

United Church of Christ

11 A.M. Service

 

"Nowhere To Run"

Ruth 1.1-18

            I remember during my time in Mozambique, seeing people driven-off from their lands by conflict and violence and wandering in search of peace and food.  They walked down the roadways and bush trails seeking shelter and refuge.  They were weary and starving, with bloated bellies and tired eyes.  They came from a place that had been home to new places in hopes of finding some modicum of what was left behind - food, water, shelter and some degree of peace.

            I remember being airlifted into a place where there was no airport.  We landed in a cargo plane into an open field.  There had been fighting there two days earlier I was told.  Climbing out of the plane into tall grass there were snakes all around and soldiers guarding the perimeter.  There was a young boy, twelve years of age he told me, who was bare foot with a bullet belt across his shoulder - his orders were to protect me.  I was driven a short distance on the back of a dump truck into a town, and as I stepped down I was mobbed.  Young eyes peered at me with broad white smiles greeting me with the words "bon dia?bon dia!"  These young children were the lucky ones - they were survivors, but their parents had died or been killed, and the government of Mozambique was trying to step into the breach offering food, shelter, and attempting to be mother and father.  They were caught in the middle of a bloody and brutal conflict that was being waged at the time by South Africa and Portugal through surrogates.  The war was being waged with the silent permission of the United States government.

            These kinds of scenes are repeated all over the world, whether in Darfur, Bosnia, Palestine, the Sudan or Chad and many other places. Sometimes the violence perpetuated is not so overt.  The global economy inflicts brutal consequences and people are uprooted, forced to traverse rivers and borders in order to feed themselves and provide for their families, children and loved ones left behind.  People have often fallen victim to climatic changes (causing famine), political conflict (because of wars), and greed (where the economic interest of a few negatively impact the many).

            This text in Ruth is set in similar circumstance. Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Chilion and Mahlon have left their homeland because of famine.  They were refugees.  They left home searching for food and shelter into a new land - Moab.  Like many people, because of wars, famine, or economic scarcity, they have left homeland in an attempt to begin life anew in a new place.  Sometimes people seeking a newer and better life think of the new land as the promise land, but promises do not always come true, and the promises that are hoped for can sometimes turn into bad dreams.  This happened for Naomi and her sons, Elimelech died leaving his wife and children behind.  But the sons eventually married.  They took wives from their adopted country.  Orpah and Ruth became part of this immigrant family.  But after tens years, not only one, but both of the sons die, leaving their mother, Naomi, their wives Orpah and Ruth alone and destitute.  The cultural times meant that without men, without husbands as providers the women were alone and poor.  But famine had also come to Moab and Naomi decided it was time to return home.  She felt that she had left with everything, and now her returning would be with nothing.  In fact, her spirits and hopes were so low when she returned home, she said to the people, "do not call me Naomi but Mara." Mara means bitterness or sorrow.  This statement illustrates just how low Naomi felt.  There was a deep and inconsolable sorrow and hopelessness in her soul.  But I am getting a little ahead.

            Naomi, realizing that there is nothing to stay in Moab for decides it is time to go home.  She releases her daughter in-laws from their family obligation, in part knowing exactly how hard and tough it is to start life in a foreign and different land.  Orpah decides that Naomi is correct and decides to return to her kinfolk, obviously with hopes of starting all over again.  But Ruth refuses to depart from Naomi saying: "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!  Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.  Where you die, I will die - there will I be buried.  May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!" 

            These are powerful words, and many have preached on the undying love that Ruth has for Naomi.  Her love, commitment and loyalty come through poignantly and powerfully in these words of poetic verse.  This text has often been used in weddings, because it is easy to feel the depth of commitment that Ruth expresses for Naomi.

            But I wonder why one of the wives would return home and the other not? I wonder why Orpah would go home to her kinsfolk and Ruth refuse.  It causes me to wonder what kind of situation Ruth came from.  Was her family dead?  Was the family in abject poverty and there was nothing there for her to return to?  I wonder whether life for Ruth had been one of abuse, and the marriage to one of Naomi's sons was a relief from the violence and possible death.  I wonder why Ruth did not go home. Was it because, for the first time in her life she found kindness and care under the roof of Naomi?  Was it because she found the love of a family in the family of Naomi and didn't want to give that up?  Or did she worry about the future and well being of Naomi that she just didn't want to leave Naomi alone to the elements?  I do not know the reasons for her not returning to her family and kinsfolk, and the scriptures give us no clues.  But I do know that there was some compelling reason that she accompanied Naomi into an uncertain future and place.

            When I think of life and living I realize that is the case - life is uncertain and our futures are uncertain!  We don't know what will come our way.  We don't know what will happen next moment.  One minute everything can be going along just fine, and the next moment we don't know what has hit us!  In one moment Naomi had a husband and two sons, and the next she had no husband.  Then Naomi had two sons and two daughter in-laws, and the next her sons were gone and her life uncertain and frightening.  Life is like that!  We don't know what twists and turns there are in our living.

            What I mean is a spouse can die, just like in the text.  A child can die, just like in the text.  We can lose our family, just like in the text.  We might have to start all over again, like at a job or go back to school for more training and to start a career all over again.  We find ourselves in places where we have to make decisions, and sometimes those decisions are difficult ones.  Naomi was going back home with nothing, and Ruth was going into a foreign land and to an uncertain future.  Sometimes we stare into our futures with more questions than answers.  At times we stand in the present moment and cannot imagine what tomorrow looks like.  One thing is sure; life can come at you fast!  In a Nationwide Insurance Ad, using that same moniker, it shows a rapper dancing to the song "Can't Touch This" while moving trucks are unloading furniture in the background into the rappers new mansion.  Fifteen minutes later the caption reads, "Foreclosure."  The insurance company reminds you that life comes at you fast!  Sometimes it is too fast for my taste.  It is too fast for our taste I am afraid.  We can find ourselves looking at problems, things we don't want to face, troubles, hardships, and dealing with emotional trauma.  Naomi and Ruth had this and more, and in those moments it becomes clear that there isn't anything much that we can do about what comes our way.  In those moments, in those instances there is nowhere to run!  So what do you do?  How do we cope?  How can we carry on?

            I am going to take a lesson from the text.  Naomi and Ruth didn't know what was before them, but they knew what was behind, and the good times they had and that they could not bring them back!  And, they did not know what was before them, whether it was good or bad, or a blessing or struggle, but they did know that they had to go forward because there was nowhere else to run and hide. Naomi returned home saying, "from now on call me "Mara;" bitterness or sorrow. She had lost everything, but there she stood, along with Ruth, with happier times to their backs and uncertainty ahead, but they faced it because they had to and there was nowhere to run or hide, and there was a love between them that held each other up.

            We need to have a feeling of love to be able to face the difficulties that come upon us.  Surround in love I can face some pretty awesome things if I know that love is real and feel it in some very tangible ways.  If someone reminds you that they are with us, surrounding you, with open hands offering to heal your hurt and soothe your worry it make life better and easier.  Naomi and Ruth had the love of one another to face the future! 

They seem to also have had faith - faith allows us to face the uncertainty of life, when it comes at you fast, and the entire flavor is drawn out of it, a reassuring faith reminds you that whatever it will be all right!  It allows you to stand and face tomorrow and another tomorrow, with another after that until the sorrow you feel fades and the disappointment turns back into joy.  Faith allows you to face difficulty with a trust and belief that says hold on and though you might not feel it yet, it will work itself out. Romans 5:3-5: "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."  There is a process to facing our uncertain future.  We go through what we go through, and in facing them we realize that we can endure through whatever comes.  We shall not only endure, but through our endurance our character is perfected.  Through the character building experience hope starts to loom and we find that the hope is real. 

Naomi and Ruth had been through some thing.  They faced the uncertainty and the suffering and eventually they cam to understand the character that God had placed in them, and through it all found it was not hopeless but hopeful and God will deliver. 

Or consider the counsel of Ephesians 6.13: "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm."  This means that we have the stuff to face life, take it as it comes, and in faith to take the lemons of life and make from it lemonade.  There is nowhere to run so we will have to stand.  Jesus also reminds us of the gift of having faith if only the size of a mustard seed.  Meaning that it doesn't take much faith to start a triumphant process - it does take some faith.  But faith increases if you use it, just as the mustard seed starts small and becomes a shrub where life resides.  And I want to remind you of Hebrews 11:1:  "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen."  None of those words talk about a tangible reality - but faith is intangible, and yet able to deal with life.  In faith we can face the present and the future.  You cannot go back, but you can go forward.  There is nowhere to run and hide so please take faith with you!

Naomi and Ruth had no choice, so they faced the future in love and faith!

 

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July 2, 2006
Plymouth Congregational
United Church of Christ
 
"Because of The Lord, We Give"

II Corinthians 8.1-15
 
          Precious time and energy gets wasted in petty fights, squabbles, minor disturbances, hidden agendas, ego trips, and all kinds of things that matter little when compare with this great gift of life we have been given.  What I mean is that we spend a lot of time staking out positions, trying to win, attempting to have our way, and disrupting good things that may be in process because it is not our way, or our idea, or our approach.  We spend too much of the gift that God has given us on things that are really of little consequence.  People spend time in mind games, intellectual exercises that produce very little - save for confusion and battles that do not amount to a thing but causes others to spend a lot of time and energy dealing in the confusion that is produced.  We waste this precious thing called life!  We miss opportunities because of a small mindedness, or because we are engaged in an open or covert rebellion to leadership.  God did not give to us the gift of life so that we would squander it, play games with it, fight through out it, and do nothing valuable that contributes to the Kingdom of God!
          I am prefacing my sermon with these remarks because as Paul writes this second letter to the church in Corinth in the aftermath of a rebellion in the church against his leadership.  Some in the church thought that Paul had no right to lead.  For some he still had blood on his hands.  To others in the church they were of the opinion that they could do whatever they wanted and how ever they wanted to do it.  Some people were saying, "We have to show Paul that it is our church and not his!"  They warred against Paul and looked with favor upon anyone that would raise rebellion. 
          Corinth had been a place that brought considerable consternation to Paul.  This was a fighting kind of church.  Either they were fighting each other in the church, or they were fighting leadership that wasn't on location but was attempting to offer direction and instruction in spiritual matters and things concerning Jesus Christ.  One thing was sure is that the church in Corinth was a lively one, a riotous experience, and it required a lot of patience and tremendous prayer.  Paul was confronted with the rebellion of this church.  This church had a difficult time being satisfied, and there were too many opinions in the church that had to do with egos and power and not the Lord or the spiritual things that needed attending to.
          What was going on in Corinth is a great case study.  This was the church that Paul had founded and loved.  Paul finds himself writing to the church around 56-57 of the Common Era, and that letter is known as I Corinthians.  The church in Corinth was doing its own thing within the context it found itself.  It did not see the Christian calling as a unique calling, and therefore the church hung on to old Hellenistic ways.  They thought like they had thought in the past.  They continued to make offerings to idols, and they continued to eat foods offered to idols.  They continued to live after they came in the church the way that they lived before they came into the church.  This caused problems for Paul.  But the church was also a combative one.  There was a divisive component in the church.  There were people in the church that exploited arguments and tensions in the community to get their own way - or at the very least to affect everyone else by causing one disruption after another.  Apollos came to the church in Corinth and Peter contributed his voice to the church, and their status demonstrated that the church was easily swayed into one camp or another.  People wanted to say that they were following Apollos or following Peter.  Party divisions developed in the church.  Paul brought to rest those who were trying to exploit tensions between Paul, Apollos and Peter, but it also showed that the Corinthians were open to persuasive appeals, and could also be swayed by even unworthy and unsavory types. 
          Jewish-Christians had arrived in Corinth and they claimed to have authority to lead the churches.  They came with the purpose to undermine Paul and his authority and to erode any respect the church had for Paul.  They succeeded, for a while, because leaders of the parties within the church, persons guilty of moral wrongs, those who were guilty of using the community, those who had different and various positions on marriage lined up in one camp or another.  People who offered food to idols and those who did not lined up in one camp or another.  People argued over whether one spiritual gift was better then another gift and they lined up in one camp or another.  There were those who believed that the body resurrected and those who did not and they lined up in one camp or another.  People were lined up in one camp or another for a whole host of reasons and there were people in the church whose sole purpose was to nurture the divisions as a strategy and means to gather power for themselves.  Corinth had become a mess!  The church in Corinth was a strong-willed, strong-headed, stubborn, and it was unsteady without a clear understanding of what it was doing or why, and it turned against its founder and leader.
          However before all this happened, Paul was leading and guiding the church to deal with a sense of mission and engage benevolent efforts.  They were raising funds and resources to support poorer Christians and particularly those Christians in the Jerusalem church.  When the infighting and the wrangling broke out in the church in Corinth the unified mission to aid poorer Christians and particularly those poor Christians in Jerusalem came to an abrupt halt.  The church was in open rebellion and there was little good that they could do.  Each group had its agenda, and each camp had its purpose and its way of seeing the church, and it wasn't going to be moved from that position no matter what!  When we stand like that and act like that then we will do little for God or for the Kingdom of God.  Paul understood this and he had the patience and faith to live through it.
          Here in II Corinthians Paul is again joyous.  The rebellion and the church are finally starting to come together and reconnect with its mission of service and love.  Paul rejoices.  And Paul writes, that as you have been doing what you have been doing there are others that are progressing because they were doing all along what they should have been doing!  In his letter to Corinth he congratulates the churches in Macedonia as an example of what Corinth should have been doing.  The churches in Macedonia, Paul writes, have been through hard times, afflictions, and they are much poorer than you are, but from their affliction and poverty they have responded with a wealth of faith and generosity.  Their generosity has overflowed.  They gave what they could and even went beyond what they could do!  They begged us, Paul writes, to take part in this work of giving and aiding the believers in the church in Jerusalem. 
          Then Paul speaks about how you can do this.  How you can give beyond what you think you can give.  It starts, Paul writes, by first of all giving yourself to the Lord, and them by the will of God to the work that is before us.  This is an important point whether you are speaking about your own finances at home and in your families, or talking about giving to a charity, or giving to the church - and particularly to the church - you start by first of all giving yourself to the Lord.  This speaks of faith and discipline.  To give yourself to the Lord means that you have faith that is growing in the Lord.  You trust the Lord, and you trust the Lord because you have seen by the many examples in your life of what God can do!  Do you know that God is able to fill your cup of plenty until it overflows, but you have to trust him in order for him to do it?  You also have to have discipline.  Everything about God calls for discipline.  Discipline in prayer life, discipline in studying the teachings of Christ, discipline in daring to walk like Christ, and discipline in handling all of your affairs in a way that is not frivolous. 
          I want you to look around.  As some of us weep and cry about our need to build and rebuild Plymouth Church, the reality is that there are many churches without the resources and talents that we have in this church and they have built already.  They have facilities that have classrooms for Sunday school and Bible Study, and elevators so that people can get in and out, and social halls that accommodate the church for gatherings and meals, and they have childcare centers.  Yes it has cost them money, but they had a faith and trust in God, and they had the discipline to step into the mission with a knowledge that God was going to fill the cup of need to overflowing! 
          This is the way that Paul spoke to the church in Corinth.  Remember the mission that you have.  It is not the mission to have your own private club, or to be satisfied, but it is a mission to step out on faith and into faith and serve the needs of the people and the community.  Give to the poor Christians in Jerusalem, and give so that the church can serve the people in the future!
          Some of you may argue with me about faith; some will argue with me about discipline; and some of you will argue with me about trusting God!  I am not going to spend a lot of time arguing back with you in return.  But I will make this point, and it is the same point that Paul makes - give because the Lord gave!  Because of the Lord we have been taught the miracle of giving.  What miracle?  This!  Before Christ knew you; before you came into this world; and even while you were still lost and a sinner Christ did not ask your name or your pedigree; and Christ did not ask whether or not you were going to thank him for the gift; but he did not hold back and he went to a cross for you!  Christ was rich, and yet for you he became poor so that "by his poverty you might become rich."  Can you imagine that God would die like a man on a cross in order to save you?  Can you imagine that he would not call on legions of angels to save him, and that he would suffer a miserable and almost unimaginable pain and suffering just for you?  Can you imagine that Jesus would love you so deeply and thoroughly and yet we waste the gift of this precious love in divisiveness, arguments, petty differences, and power plays, which has little or no consequences in the Kingdom of God except to destroy the belief and faith of a new and young believer?  Are we giving back with the same passion and compassion that Jesus gave to us?
          Sisters and Brothers, our giving in the church is because of the Lord.  Our giving to charities and benevolences is because of the Lord.  The gifts we have been given are because of Jesus and the gifts we give are also because of the love of Christ.  Yes he first loved us!  That means you and me!  Yes he gave this precious gift of life to us not to squander it or waste it but with boldness to give back because the Lord has shown to us how to give! 

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Preached May 13, 2006
Plymouth Congregational
United Church of Christ

Mother's Day

"Boundless Good News"

Acts 8.26-40
 
          Again, happy Mother's day to all of the mothers, all of the women who serve the community and humanity as mothers, all of the women who nurture, teach, mentor and care for others, and even to all of the men who approach life with tenderness and care!  We are all reminded of the attributes of motherhood today. 
          This text has a mothering quality to it.  As I ponder the text I am reminded of the many times that I was accepted, cared for and fed; I can think of the many times that someone looked past the external veneer to see the wounded hurt and the bruising that surrounded my heart, and knew how to reach in at the right time.  I can think of many instances where I was left out, ignored, made to feel unworthy and someone saw that pain, though it wasn't yet articulated, and demonstrated through a smile, a word, or a kind act that I too was included, valued, and wanted.  I guess those are the characteristics we honor in mothers and women on this day.  We can think of comfort food to heal the hurt; a smile that took away the chill of the world; and a voice that used words that brought laughter and reminded us that we too are children of God.
          As I think of mothers, I think of qualities like acceptance, care, tenderness, and an intuitive spirit.  As I think of mothers I see people who instead of throwing daggers and more hurt into the world and lives, bring wisdom, healing, and a desire to make peace.  Dick Gregory, last Friday, described mothers as people who can say "come here and let me kiss you where it hurts!"  I see this text in many ways through these kinds of lens.
          I am sure that you are asking how can you get that out of this?  How in the world can you see all of this in the text?  It is only about someone learning about Jesus and being baptized!  Where are all of these other things?
          Let's explore the text a little.  The Ethiopian eunuch was in the royal court of Ethiopia - a Black man!  He served the Candace, and that is a title and not a name.  It is a title that is equivalent to Cleopatra or Caesar.  The Candace was the Queen of Ethiopia, and this Ethiopian served as her treasurer.  The King of Ethiopia was considered like a god, and as the descendant of the sun did not engage in the day-to-day affairs of the Kingdom.  The ruling was left up to the queen or Candace.  This man, this eunuch was high up in the court, and obviously worked very close to the queen.  His proximity to the queen would necessitate that the man be a eunuch because by being castrated he would not have the impulses or desires to become engaged with the queen or the other women in the queen's court.  In the ancient world, eunuchs were employed to work in harems or around the women of the high officials for protection, business affairs, and a whole host of other responsibilities but were altered physically as not to have the sexual urges that ordinarily might pose a problem working in and around the women in the royal court.  Luke-Acts makes it clear in these brief verses that the person that we are talking about here it in a place of great responsibility; he is Black (a Ethiopian); and he is a eunuch - an important description to understand the significance and the power of the story.
          The Ethiopian was obviously a Jew because he was reading from the book of Isaiah.  Whether he was born a Jew or had been a convert is impossible to know.  We know however from other sources that there were Jews in Ethiopia, and some scholars assert that monotheism actually came out of Africa and that could suggest that Judaism actually has its origins in Africa. 
          This Ethiopian was on a pilgrimage.  That is not too hard to conceive of.  People go on pilgrimages all the time.  People make pilgrimages to Mecca, some return to their motherlands, and Christians today draw particular significance in journeying to Jerusalem and the other sites recorded in the bible.  In this case this Ethiopian had journeyed 1500 miles one way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem.  In all, it would be a 3000 mile round trip.  It was an arduous journey and very dangerous.  But he journeyed in hopes of worshipping in the great Temple and making a sacrifice therein.  It was the kind of journey that one would plan for all their lives.  He was hoping to make the kind of memory that would last him with great fondness the rest of his days.  He made the 1500-mile trek one-way to the Temple in Jerusalem!
          However upon his arrival disappointment after disappointment set in.  He quickly discovered that his Nubian skin did not allow him to enter the Temple.  To those in Jerusalem he looked like an outsider, and with his dark skin he was not allowed to go any further than where the gentiles were allowed to gather.  And even worst, he was confronted with the scripture of Deuteronomy 23.1 that did not allow anyone that was castrated to enter into the holiest parts of the Temple!  He had traveled 1500 miles to be excluded.  He had come all this distance and all this way to be left out and blocked from coming into the presence of God.  He had come all this way and now was turning around to go home. 
          Can you imagine after having found God people say you are not worthy!  After having come to understand the mystery of God and finding that the promise of the divine can touch you in the deepest places that yearns, somebody, some rule, someone is able to turn you around!  Can you imagine finding God only to be told that you are not worthy enough to come into the presence of the Lord?  This is what this Ethiopian eunuch encountered!
          People encounter this all the time from others who claim to be of the faith and of God.  We look upon others and dare to define who is worthy and who is not.  We make up rules to govern who is of the faith and who is not.  We even claim some rules are from God and present those rules knowing that by claiming they are from God no one will dispute them.  These rules in Deuteronomy were claimed to be of God, and they produced a segregated, hard-hearted and a not very compassionate expression of God.  The Ethiopian encountered the rules and could not go in!
          But Philip urged on by the spirit got up and went down a wilderness road from Jerusalem to Gaza, and it was there that he saw the eunuch seated in his chariot reading from the book of Isaiah.  And Philip asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"  And the Ethiopian wanted to know more, and Philip starting with that text told him about the Good News of Christ.  The eunuch had been waiting and had not found in all Jerusalem anyone who would engage him about the faith.  But Philip told him how Isaiah had prophesized Jesus and how Jesus was the Messiah that all of the Jews had been waiting for.  Philip told him how Jesus had suffered and died.  Philip told him that a good thing could not be kept down.  Philip told him that he rose from the grave!  Death could not hold him!  And this proves that he is God! 
          The Ethiopian eunuch had been excluded, but Philip because of the Good News of Christ had included him.  Philip told him all about God's love and that love extends to Jews and Christ believers, to Ethiopians and eunuchs.  God has a boundless love, and there is boundless Good News because of Christ!  God's love is extended to Africans, Europeans and even Americans!  God's love is for the Native peoples of the world, and people from every continent, nation and island nation.  God's love is for every nationality, ethnic group and each gender.  God's love is for straight and gay people.  God's love is to male and female, short and tall, wide and thin.  It is a boundless and encompassing kind of love - it is boundless Good News that stretches and reaches every person and corner of the world! 
          Can you imagine what it felt like for the Ethiopian who had already been refused by people for so many reasons - can you imagine what it felt like to hear someone say that God loves you?  Can you imagine what it felt like to feel the warm and strong arms of God surround to embrace you?  Can you imagine what it felt to be refused and blocked and then to be accepted and welcomed?  The Ethiopian said to Philip, "Here is some water, and what hinders you from baptizing me right now?" 
          Dick Gregory said that only a Mother can say, "come here and let me kiss it where it hurts."  But God is saying through Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch, "Come here and let me kiss you where it hurts, because I have a boundless love and the Good News of God is as boundless as that love."  The Ethiopian felt the call of embrace and received the blessing of God!
          This is what I mean by boundless good news.  And if it embraces, reaches and is available to the Ethiopian it is surely available to you.  Sometimes we feel alone, not understood, alienated from self and others; sometimes we carry the scars of not being welcomed; not being accepted; made to feel unworthy - and the embrace of God and the Good News of Christ is exactly what we need!  We are never the right kind of people when it comes to human beings - we are either too ugly, or too pretty, or too skinny, or too fat, from the wrong part of town; or our families were poor; or we weren't loved enough; or we never felt loved; or we never felt good enough, but the boundless good news of the Christ declares that you are a child of God.  Maybe you didn't go to the right kinds of school and someone is always putting you down, but the boundless good news of Christ is ready to pick you up because you are a child of God.  You are God's child.  You have been blessed by the best and that is boundless Good News!  *********************************************************************

January 15, 2006, On The Birthday of

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Plymouth Congregational
United Church of Christ
 

"Are You Listening?"

I Samuel 3.1-10

 
          This text was dealt with a little last week.  It is one of the stories that is powerful to me and prompted me to bring it into my sermon last week "Accepting the Charge."  Jesus had accepted the charge after knowing completely what that charge was and what it meant.  He came under the charge that John the Baptist had, and then he carried it further.  As I dealt with that topic last week, the story of Samuel's call came alive for me, and I spoke about how Samuel had heard God calling him in the quiet of the evening.  The only thing was that he didn't know that it was God, but thought instead it was Eli.  He ran to Eli to find out what the Priest wanted, and after being repeatedly disturbed by Samuel, Eli finally perceived that it might be the Lord calling and told the boy to go and lie back down, and the next time he heard the voice to respond, "Speak Lord for your servant is listening!"  I want to share a few moments with you today the subject "are you listening?"
          A radio program from Boston interviewed me yesterday.  That program was designed to reflect upon the life and ministry of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to analyze where we are today as a people and a nation.  One of the controversies that the station engaged me in was a brewing conflict in San Antonio, Texas where the military wanted to do a fly over during the King parade on Monday.  This suggestion and the military's engagement with the parade has created quite a stir with numbers of groups threatening to boycott the parade and calling upon others to do so as well.  Others are planning to show up but will wear symbolic dress to protest the military, and yet some don't see why all of the controversy. 
          To those who do not understand the controversy, all I can ask is whether you have been listening to the critique and message of Rev. King, or whether the message is no longer as important as the personality.  Have you been listening, I ask to the message of King's non-violence?  Were you listening to his analysis of the evils of racism, poverty and militarism?  Have you been listening at the critique that asserted that the greatest purveyor of violence in the world is the United States of America and unfortunately it remains so?  Have you been listening to what Martin King and the Gospel of Jesus Christ has to say about "loving God with all your heart; all your mind; all your soul; all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself?"  Have you been listening?
Unfortunately it seems that America does a lot of talking, selling, profiteering, pontificating and not much listening.  It seems that America can talk to everyone else in the world about what is right and not heed it own advice.  It seems America can talk about democracy every place else in the world, on every continent, and not heed it own words at home where elections are flawed; convicted felons are disenfranchised from voting long after they have paid their debt to society; and where politicians after elected cease to listen to the people.  Are we listening to the fact that wealth should produce for every person decent housing, adequate healthcare, and quality education?  Are we listening to Martin King still or have we gotten so caught up in the form that we have failed to heed the content.  It seems that we have missed a lot of the content of what King taught.  Many who celebrate King now did not listen to him while he was alive and now have reduced his vibrant message to prom and circumstance without substance.  What are we listening to?
          I think really that is my question.  What are we listening to?  Are we listening attentively to messages of greed, selfishness, narcissism, materialism, and individualism, and have forgotten the stuff that makes a society strong and a community vibrant and faithful?  It seems that we are focused upon the bling-bling of life, and the passion of cling-cling in the cash registers or bank.  We have listened to the voices that say "look out for number-one," "take no prisoners," and "it is all about me!"  We have listened to the voices that accept violence without a flinch, and sex without love and commitment.  We objectify people for purposes of our own gain and power, seeking to use people as objects and when we have no more use to disregard people like waste in a trash barrel.  We have been listening to some pretty foul things and as a consequence the society has become more violent, life has become cheaper, and the beauty of existence has become uglier and trying.  Who have we been listening to?  What have we been listening to?  We have been listening to the wrong people and in wrong circles for our answers.  It is important that we take some time to reflect this King weekend on the work still before us -- the unfinished business -- and what is God saying to and about us all!
          Samuel heard God's voice in the night.  Eli perceived that it was God and told the boy to go back and lie down and when God spoke again to respond to the Lord in such a way that he would pronounce and proclaim that he was open to what the Lord had to say even if it was against everything that he had come to know.  He had to listen to the Lord fresh and new.  What I mean is all that Samuel knew was Eli and the house of Eli.  Samuel was brought to Eli as a young boy as the fulfillment of a pledge made by his mother, Hannah.  All therefore Samuel knew in his young life was the voice of Eli as his role model and the conduct of Eli's children.  God had to speak in the midst of the situation and if things were going to change someone had to listen.  All Samuel had come to know was the conduct of Eli and that of Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's sons.  In other words, Samuel was in a bad environment. 
          Hophni and Phinehas we are told used the old age of their father, Eli, to take advantage of the situation.  We are told in chapter 2.12 that they were scoundrels.  They took the best food for themselves, that they wouldn't even wait for the sacrifice to be appropriately offered, and that they would reach into the boiling pot with a big fork and pull the best out for themselves.  Someone could say that they were serving themselves with a big spoon!  For them the things of God were things of personal gain, wealth and power and it had little to do with the Lord.  And to make matters worst, they were not only robbing the people and the Lord blind, but they were even seducing the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting - the gathering place for the community and the presence of God.  They were bad men, and they had no regard for anyone, and all they could and would focus on was that which made them fatter, richer and more powerful.  They had objectified everything.  I don't mean this in a good way, but I mean it in this way; that they used everything, anything and anyone, and they even used God. 
          This was a bad thing for Samuel to experience.  We are told in verse 7 of the third chapter: "Samuel did not yet know the Lord."  In other words the only thing that he knew was the conduct and conniving qualities of Hophni and Phinehas, and the impotence of Eli in dealing with his sons.  The only thing that Samuel knew was the bad examples that had been placed before him in the place in which he lived and the environment in which he grew. 
          This is our struggle today.  We exist in an environment where greed is depicted as good; sex is considered conquest and comes without meaning or commitment; where violence and might seems to make right; where selfishness is the name of the game; and where success at self centered narcissism defines whether life is good or not.  We exist in this environment and these are the voices we hear. 
          Take for example a child that grows in an environment where the wrong thing is twisted into the right thing, and where people demonstrate hostility and anger to each other all the time.  Think of the effects of violence and what it does to the human grasp of the consequences when you have been exposed to it all your life.  You eventually are robbed of the barometer of conscience and the statement that someone disrespected you or that they had what you wanted is justification for violence, injury and death inflicted on another.  This is what we have wrought in our culture.  This is what we have been listening to. 
To make matters worst, Eli was too apathetic and weak to do anything about his boys.  His example is where we give permission to wrong, to hurt and harm, and to injustices by believing that we cannot do anything to stop it.  The racist joke we laughed at; the sexist joke we entertained; the off handed and derogatory remark we entertained without lifting one syllable in protest; the homophobic comments that brings snickering - this is how we act like Eli.  They were Eli's children, and when we allow our children to harm, to hurt, to say and do something wrong without chastisement then we are like Eli.  But we also allow our friends to harm others, talk about others, injure another, be racist towards another, and act superior to someone else, and we don't say a word because we want to remain that person's friend.  We act like Eli.  We have been listening to the wrong voices.
          Are you listening?  Are you listening to the deranged expressions of the culture, or are you prepared to listen to God?  Samuel did not yet know the Lord and either he was going to listen to God or to Eli and his children.  He said, "Speak, your servant is listening!"
          I am so glad that he responded in this way.  Martin Luther King, Jr. responded in this way.  He was from a prominent family in the Baptist church.  He could have simply gone the way of his father and found a nice church to settle down in and live like a king.  He could have gone into a good professor's position with his Ph.D.  He could have surrounded himself with the trappings of a middle class life, the elite of the Black community, but God spoke!  God spoke and his servant listened.  King overthrew comfort and accomplishment for struggle, beatings, jailing, and ultimately assassination.  God is speaking!  He overthrew connections in high places to speak the truth about poverty, violence, race and militarism.  Folk shunned him for speaking out against the war in Vietnam, and yet his voice is clear and precise and you can read in his words the will he would have today to speak out against the war in Iraq.  Speak Lord!  But are we listening?
          Samuel listened to the Lord, and the Lord had a critique for the family of Eli and vowed that Eli's family would be replaced.  Samuel had to look at Eli with new eyes and see what he was unable to see previously.  This is the way God is.  God will open our eyes to see the truth if we will open our hearts to receive God and our ears to hear God's message.  The message that was given to Samuel is the same that came through Jesus.  It is the same message of love and hope that has been spoken through the ages.  That message is still resounding.  God is speaking right here and right now to his church and his people - speak Lord, your servant is listening!

Preached September 11, 2005
Plymouth Congregational
United Church of Christ       

Gracing Because We Know What Grace Is