A Life Worthy of God

A sermon preached at Faith Episcopal Church, September 18, 2005

In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul is indulging in a bit of “Beam me up, Scotty” thinking. He’s worn out b y the struggle and longing for the next life - one less filled with strife. There are certainly times when this mortal coil is too oppressive and hard but, like Paul, we don’t get to opt out. We have to live out our years. We have to figure out how to be here in such a way that God is honored, Christ is lived and the Spirit is embraced. In other words, we have to figure out how to get along. Paul says, “live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about organized religion – partly because it’s my job and partly because I think that for all of its failings, it is truly important to the world. It gives direction s for how we live together. Our collective summer reading, The Heart of Christianity says a lot about the what and why of religion. The author, Marcus Borg writes that all religion is a human response to the mystery, the sacred, or as he calls it, “the more.” All of the religions of the world have at their core, the same basic ideas, while having their unique perspective for expressing those truths. At its simplest, knowing that there is “more” should call for a response – that’s what religion is. It’s about how we are related to that “more” to each other and for each other. It’s that life worthy of God.

Yesterday, the LA Times had a large article on China beginning a national campaign to teach manners and courtesy before the Olympics get there in a few years. Life in the US is rude enough but it’s hard for us to imagine living in a culture where spitting and other liquid functions are regularly practiced on the street. Table manners and other forms of social convention were to some measure discouraged during the years of Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Civility and social delicacy, as associated with the traditional Chinese culture, were superseded by revolution and ultimately coarseness. It was a compliment to be called a “big rude guy.” One sentence jumped out at me in the article. “By stripping away civility, China, often destroyed the fundamental trust between people, a legacy its society is still paying for.” Globalization certainly has its downside, but as China is drawn into life with the rest of the world, it must figure out how to get along, starting with small things like “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me” as well as business ethics. A vice president for one corporation that is investing in extensive training said, “People are starting to see that operating in a good, ethical and well-mannered way helps you survive in the long term.” All of this sounds like the Golden Rule and the 10 Commandments. China is being pushed to think about how they are living their collective life. I see organized religion as being a presence in your life and your culture that helps to do that.

What really got me started thinking about this was an essay I stumbled upon this week. I actually have setting on my computer called Stumble Upon which will randomly open up really interesting websites. What I found was an essay by Albert Einstein called “The World as I See It.” I find it so extraordinary that I wanted to share it with you and then to challenge you to an essay writing contest using the same title. I’d love to see what we come up with. Here’s Albert’s entry.

“How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

“I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

“My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."

“My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

“This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

Albert Einstein, this very religion man who did not join with anyone else for the practice of his faith, expressed his understanding of living one’s life in a worthy manner. He was not, however, a stranger to the religious tradition; he was brought up in a culture infused with the ethics and lessons of Torah and the prophets. He then lived to see his greatest achievements turned into the greatest single moment of death the world has ever seen. He looked into the cosmos and he saw “more.” His life was about engaging the mystery – so is yours.

Righteous Anger

A sermon preached at Faith Episcopal Church, September 11, 2005

It has been noted on occasion that my ability to express anger is in keeping with my hair color. Ooo watch out, she is a redhead after all! It’s true, I do anger well. Sometimes it’s intentionally expressed righteous anger as commentary on injustice like last week. It is a good and justifiable thing to be angry on behalf of people who because of their race and economic status were forgotten as the storm bore down on the only place they had to hide. Four years ago it was right to be angry at those who hijacked the planes bringing terror and death. It is right to be angry at those who would use such events for political or economic gain. That’s sociological anger and it can be a force for change and betterment of the human condition. Indeed, it’s often a necessary step on the road to reform. But it’s exhausting and has to be tempered with other topics and comic relief. Too much of the prophets’ anger and people will refuse to listen. Learning how to use anger well and with integrity is necessary for spiritual growth.

Anger is a very real human emotion. It’s a good idea to learn about it. All too often we take the words of today’s reading from Ecclesiasticus literally and think that anger is bad. Actually anger is neutral, it simply exists. How one acts when angry is really what the Bible is talking about.

Pretending that you never feel anger or denying it when you do is not healthy. There’s lots of evidence that how one deals with anger has a significant impact on physical health. If you swallow your anger often or long enough, you will probably end up with an ulcer. Your unacknowledged and repressed anger will turn on you. Anger is described as hot, fiery so it is no surprise that if you keep it inside it will burn you or at least your stomach lining. It might be better to invest in some emotional oven mits and learn how to express your anger so it doesn’t hurt you or someone else.

Hurting someone else with your anger – now we’re getting closer to why the bible frowns on it. The letter to the Ephesians says to avoid sin when angry. Now that’s very good advice. Unless we learn how to deal with our anger, in a way that is helpful we are owned by it like a child in the throes of a temper tantrum. That means learning how to recognize it, not automatically stuff it down inside but actually be able to observe it and then learn how to express it appropriately. The old adage of counting to ten is actually a very good bit of advice – it doesn’t deny anger but it makes a space for a less volatile and more helpful expression of it. On occasion you will hear me say “I am too angry to discuss this right now.” I know that I can’t even be coherent when I’m angry. I need to rant, slam a cupboard or two, scream into a pillow or when I’m really angry, clean the kitchen. That’s my equivilent of counting to ten. I have to express it and get it out before I can really deal with what made me angry to begin with.

Stephen King’s spooky book and movie “Carrie” is all about the consequences of repressed anger. The unpopular girl who has been picked on for so long finally snaps and her anger creates an energy so deadly that the world around her bursts into flames. The savagery of the French Revolution was like that. Anger had simmered for so long, with no outlet or hope of change that when it broke out it could not be contained.

We live in a culture that does not do well with anger. It is often overexpressed for trivialities, or unexpressed because we’ve been told that anger is socially unacceptable, or it is indiscriminate. You can’t tell me that freeway shooters aren’t angry about something.

The Bible is speaks often of God’s anger or wrath. What brings about God’s anger? First on that list is worshipping something other than God. It’s easy to think that this is God being heavy handed in a popularity contest with other gods but it’s more subtile than that. God is displeased when we put money, power, or ourselves at the top of our priority list. All of the other things that anger God have their roots in this kind of idolatry. Worship of money will lead us to greed, dishonesty, selfishness and isolation. Remember the lesson of King Midas’ love of money that eventually costs him his beloved daughter. Gold is a false god and bowing down at that altar is sure to displease the Holy One.

In Paris I worked often with a very swanky funeral home. They buried all of the important people, those with titles, those with lots of money and influence. They had on staff their own Chef de Protocol to make sure that people were greeted nd seated according to their rank and importance. Jean Marc was the young man with whom I planned many funerals and he spoke from experience about the loneliness and emptiness of the lives of so many wealthy people in Paris. People living in unimaginable luxury with no purpose except browsing at Dior and worrying about their money. They live alone in a gilded hell because of what they have chosen to worship.

When God gets angry it isn’t a temper tantrum; it’s about creating a better future. Forsaking false gods and turning ones focus to a better way of being is all that is required to turn away God’s wrath. Remember Ninevah – after Jonah brought God’s message – they changed and God did not destroy them. Or maybe God did not allow them to destroy themselves. A good lesson for us in this is that anger tempered into clear-headed resolve can be directed toward a better future. That’s healthy righteous anger.

Our other readings today have to do with forgiveness. We are called to forgiveness in the aftermath of anger. Either we are justified in our anger at how we have been treated or someone is justified in their anger towards us because of something we have done. Anger will make you a prisoner of time. It will trap you in the past. Forgiveness is the way to freedom. We incur God’s wrath when we refuse to forgive because holding on to our anger means that we have begun to worship it. Feuds between groups are like that whether it’s the Hatfields and the McCoys or the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland or Jews and Arabs or liberals and conservatives. At some point the animosity has gone on for so long that no one even remembers why. Anger and hatred become a way of being. It’s as if people begin to define themselves by their hatred. They do not know who they are without their enemy. This does not please God.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa was probably the best proof that the world has ever seen that the human species can evolve emotionally and socially. It gave us a model of forgiveness and reconciliation and gave the people of South Africa the best chance to escape the grip of their past and move into a better future. There was plenty of justifiable anger for the victims of apartheid. The gift of the hearings held by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the committee was to allow people to tell their stories. The pent up agony and anger were given an outlet; they were heard. Many who needed to confess did so – detailing in public the horrible things that they had done to their brothers and sisters. The memories will never go away but they have been stripped of much of their destructive power and the people are free. This courageous process was watched with amazement around the world. Interestingly, no other groups have yet to take such a bold step into the future. But at least we know it can be done. Forgiveness is the powerful product of well managed anger. Archbishop Tutu wrote a small memoir of his work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He titled it No Future without Forgiveness. Whether it is forgiveness of self or others, he was right.

What We Know

A sermon preached at Faith Epsicopal Church, September 4, 2005.

This week we have all watched in horror as the worst possible scenario has played out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Accusations, explanations and excuses have swirled around the airwaves like the increasing fetid waters in the streets of New Orleans. Our reading from Ezekiel today sounds eerily prophetic. Every community is charged with the task to appoint sentinels to see the danger, sound the trumpet and warn the people. Doppler radar did its job – the images of Katrina as it approached the coast were clear enough. The storm was a monster – its swirling motion filled the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes are sociopathic killers – they have no feelings, no remorse, no guilt. It came, it destroyed and then it moved on. By Wednesday it was soaking the midwest.

There is much that we don’t know at this point. Once people are all rescued, where will they all be? Will they ever be able to go home again? Can and will the city be rebuilt and if so, how long will it take? What will the cost be and will our overall economy be changed? Do we have the collective will to do and pay for all that is necessary? What lasting affect will this moment and these images produce? We know none of these things.

So let’s look at what we do know. We know that God, the creator of heaven and earth, is a loving God and does not rain down suffering on innocents as retribution. Human affairs, societal decisions and the raw power of nature cause destruction and suffering but it is not God’s will. Contrary to the statement made by an organization called Repent America and the American Family Association, this was not God’s punishment for homosexuality and Mardi Gras. The Bible tells us over and over again that God’s priorities lie with care and concern for the poor and the defenseless. God’s calls for justice for them far outweigh any divine interest in human sexuality. That’s an American obesssion. God’s statements about pouring wrath on various nations are almost always tied to idolatry (the worship of things other than God) and how their poorest and most vulnerable citizens are treated. Right now, God is more concerned with those who are at risk from the dangers of the flooded city, starvation, thirst, violence, and feelings of abandonment. We know that God cares about this because God came to live and die as one of us, to suffer with us so that our suffering always happens simultaneously here and in the heart of God. New Orleans might not look like Calvary, but it is. What is done to the least among us is done to Jesus.

We also know about humanity. As the veneer of civilization has been stripped away, humanity’s brokenness has been revealed in shocking fashion. The evil that lurks in the heart of humankind was turned loose, armed with guns and ammunition looted from Walmart. We know that this lies within us. Fear can reduce people to the lowest form of behavior. Pack mentality whips up a frenzy of rage and control is gone. The image of God within that makes us more than mere mammals is squashed so far down that it cannot be expressed. The stories from the darkness in the hospitals and the SuperDome are heartbreaking.

And yet, into the midst of this misery ride knights on shining steeds like the Mayor of San Antonio. I heard him interviewed and he said that the residents of San Antonio had decided that they would do what ever they needed to do. He said that if they were asked to take 25,000 people they would do it and find a way to share what they had. Places would be found in the public schools for children. When asked “will you have room for them, won’t that be a hardship, he said “of course it will be hard but we’ll find a way to make it work.” Accomodations, beginning with a closed military base will be made available along with medical care and help to rebuild lives. The people of San Antonio and all of the people who have so far donated millions prove that there is, within the heart of humanity, the spark that lifts us up and out of ourselves. We give and we we rebuild and go on. The human spirit is resilient beyond measure. No matter how grim and rotting the present may be the ember of hope is the most combustible thing in all creation. When people rescued from their rooftops are cared for and welcomed and treated as brothers and sisters, they will be able to see into the future.

What else is do we know in this moment. We know compassion and righteous anger on someone else’s behalf. As we saw the images of the crowd outside the New Orlean’s Convention Center one stark reality was that all of the faces were black. Most of the people who were there were people who are too poor to leave the city. There is no doubt that some had foolishly thought to “ride out” the storm and it proved to be a serious error in judgment. But most of those left in New Orleans were those without the means to evacuate. If you don’t own a car or have the money to buy gas or a ticket how can you leave? Some of the shame of this situation will be that the only option given to these brothers and sisters of ours was to go to the SuperDome. In our community of two car garages and multiple credit cards, it may be hard to imagine but we must. And we must take very seriously the reality that these people did not choose to be in such squalor – it was their only option. There but for the grace of God are we. Let their plight be a sentinel for racial and economic justice for the ones with the least.

Offers of aid have been streaming in from all of the countries that we outspend every year. Hopefully we know humility and gratitude. Even Jamaica – a tragically poor island nation has offered help. For all of our efforts to seal ourselves off from the dangers of the world – we know vulnerability. Vulnerability is not really such a bad thing because it makes you aware of your need for others. We need our global neighbors. Not just to help rebuild after this hurricane but to recreate our world based on the bonds of humanity and kinship and love. It’s good to admit that we need others. And it is good for others to be able to help us.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has given the sheltered American public a view of suffering that happens on a regular basis around the world. Up to now, we have been able to shield our eyes from it but no longer. Prejudice and racism have been exposed in our living rooms – the kind that allowed us to ignore Rwanda, Darfur and Niger, we can’t pretend anymore that it isn’t there. The horrible conditions that people must endure when there are forced from their homes by catastrophe are no longer something that happens to unknown people half a world away. It happened in the Big Easy; it happened here. For us to truly learn from this we must begin to feel that when it happens somewhere out there– it truly happens here.

This week has reminded us that absolute security is a fairy tale. Being alive is risky business. Katrina reminded us that even with ample warning, massive destruction and suffering can and will happen. We know that, for heaven’s sake, we live in earthquake central and the land of mudslides and wildfires. But what we know in all of this is that when we suffer, God is in suffering. God expects us to take care of one another and to be willing to face our shortcomings and errors in judgment with courage and honesty. We have a ways to go live up to that expectation. The work begins as we decide to do better. When we do that, God is glad to be in the midst of us.