The Lake of the Wounded

A sermon preached at Faith Episcopal Church on July 16, 2006

The Lake of the Wounded

Deep within the Smokey Mountains, the people say, west of the headwaters of the river, there is a lake called Ataga’hi. No hunter has ever seen this lake, for it is the place the animals go to heal themselves when they are wounded. Some men say they have been near that place. As they walked through the mists across what seemed to be a barren flat, they began to hear the wings of water birds and the sound of water falling. But they could not find Ataga’hi.

Some of those who have lived as friends of the animals have been granted a vision of the lake. After praying and fasting all through the night, they have seen the springs flowing down from the high cliffs of the mountains into the stream that feeds Ataga’hi. Then, just at dawn, they have caught a glimpse of wide purple waters and the birds and the animals bathing in those waters and growing well again. But as soon as they have seen it, that vision has faded away, for the animals keep the lake invisible to all hunters.

It is said that there are bear tracks everywhere around Ataga’hi, for the bear is a great healer. One of those who saw Ataga’hi in the old days said that she saw a wounded bear with a great spear wound in its side plunge into the purple water and come out whole and strong on the other shore.

It is hard today to see Ataga’hi, and some think that its sacred waters have dried. But it is still there, the Cherokee say, hidden deep in the mountains and guarded by the animals. If you treat all the animals with respect, live well and pray, it may be that some day you will see the purple waters of Ataga’hi too.

The beautiful story – the Lake of the Wounded – spoke to me as I looked for something to complement the opening passages from the letter to the Ephesians. Particularly “With all wisdom and insight he has made know to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the full-ness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” The key here is the universal nature of God’s plan. If God the Creator is the source of all that is, and continues to love and be present in all that is then it is not too great a leap to think that God will not give up on any part of creation that gets broken or for a time is rebelliously unloveable. In fact, Jesus’ parables often reflect God’s particular focus on those who are the most lost. God is certainly glad to have the well-behaved children around the table showing off good manners but it’s the ones that are not there, that have run off angrily shouting, “I won’t do it and you can’t make me!” that will become God’s prey. God’s patience with those who run from love is the winning strategy in the game of salvation.

This passage from Ephesians stands in a pretty lonely place in the Bible. As often happens in our scripture, cherished beliefs are given a counter-point. This image of all things – emphasis on the all – being gathered up into Christ stands in stark contrast to all of those passages about sheep and goats, some people being taken up while those left behind are – the Left Behinds. The letter to the Ephesians is the “yes, but…” to all of that. I believe that this is the scripture’s way of not allowing itself to be used as a weapon of exclusivity or to remind us that our understanding of God’s will is complete at best. Just when we think we can be sure of something because “the Bible says it” all you need to do is spend a little time in that book looking around and you will see your cherished expectations rattled just a bit.

In the Lake of the Wounded the purple healing water is available to all of the animals as they need it to be cured of their wounds. They do not need to be any particular animal, buffalo are not given precedence over gophers, and crows are as welcome as regal mountain lions. The story doesn’t tell us how animals know to seek out the healing of the lake. In their need, do they just know that there is a place of balm and ease for their suffering? The healing is offered because it is the Great Spirit’s nature to heal and because they are wounded. Here’s a question – would the animals come to the waters if they were not wounded? Liturgy and prayer and community are our ways of visiting such healing waters when we are not suffering from spear wounds. That makes our time together a joyous expression of wellness. Continually strengthened we are more able to make a holy response to wounds we see around us. Healing what divides us is salvation.

Considering and expectation salvation can be some of the most divisive thinking in all Christian theology. A lot of the way it is expressed in salvation passages is as if it were something to which you could buy a ticket – some event at a particular time that will be the end of every thing as we know it and the beginning of that time when only the good ones are left standing. There’s a whole lot of that kind of talk around right now. In some corners of Christendom currently there are people all in a hurry to convert as many Jews as possible because that will supposedly hasten the time we’ve all been awaiting. Well, I think it’s time for the renovation of this particular understanding of salvation.

What if “salvation” isn’t something that happens to everyone at the same time. What if it is more like the healing in the Lake of the Wounded – always happening when there is a need. Anyone who is wounded is welcomed into those purple waters and comes out on the other side whole and healthy. The whole idea of Jesus message via the gospels is this universal invitation to wholeness. My professor Clark Williamson said this in his book Guest in the House of Israel:

At the heart of the Jesus movement and the theology of Paul was a denunciation of every effort to place limits and conditions on the gracious love of God. That God justifies the ungodly, that this is true for all “others” if it is true for Christians, that it is not their place to instruct God as to the limits to be put on the divine grace, that God can and will do new things that none of us can either imagine or anticipate – all this is at the heart of Christianity’s apostolic witness.

It is not for us to decide that God has a timetable for drawing various parts of Creation into wholeness. It is as likely – in my mind – that “the fullness of time” may refer to that time when all of the presently unacceptable, the defiant ones shouting “I won’t do it and you can’t make me!” and all of those who, for whatever reason, might think that God doesn’t exist or doesn’t care, when all of their resistance has been overcome by the relentless love of God – then the time will be full.

Thought of in such a way – we all have a stake in everyone in the world understanding that God is love. Participating in God’s work by multiplying the amount of love that is in the world is the work of the people of God. It is unlikely that what is currently going on in the Middle East is a helpful step toward any kind of salvation. Bombs are not instruments of love and healing. The only way that this kind of relating is going to be transformed is if people who have already been dipped in the Lake of the Wounded step up and say there is a better way. We know that it is there. We have seen it.

Hearing the Lord's Prayer Again

A sermon preached at Faith Episcopal Church on July 9, 2006.

About two weeks ago Lorelei asked me what my favorite scripture verse was. Of course this was a part of a surprise the Vicar campaign for my birthday and so I was told not to ask questions. So I obediently told her that my favorite scripture passage is Micah 6:8. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” I was informed that that was currently not an option through Bangles from Heaven, so the bracelet that you gave me last week reflected a different verse from Galatians and is probably one I’m more in need of. It is a list of the fruits of the spirit which are a good reminder to me to be kind, patient, loving, nice sweet and generally agreeable. I’ll need to wear it frequently and thank you very much.

We have been challenging ourselves to pray the Lord’s Prayer in the more contemporary language which I realize is a bit jarring at first. We’ve all grown up praying the traditional language and it is a part of us. We say it automatically and usually uncritically which is not a bad thing. But I remember feeling surprise when a friend told me that her least favorite Bible verse was “Lead us not into temptation.” Why should we have to pray to God not do something bad to us? Part of the surprise was self-recrimination – that jangle of ‘yeah that has always bothered me in a vague way’ and “Darn! Why didn’t I think of that!” She had articulated that which I had never brought to the surface, I had prayed it so often that I was immune.

Ever since then, the more I think of it, the more it bothers me. For that reason I have willingly embraced the more modern language version of the prayer. Quoting from the Gospel of Luke, it says “Save us from the time of trial.” It also refers to forgiving our sins as opposed to trespasses. Trespass is a quaint expression in the midst of modern vernacular. Praying about our sins feels a little more direct and honest to me. Trespass is too nice a word for it. But back to the time of trial; Luke’s language is some of the code vocabulary from the Bible. The “time of trial” was a way of referring to the time of tribulation and trial and apocalypse – when the old order would give way to the new in an awesome and messy struggle.

Missing that is something for which we might well want to pray. But we can also find personal connection with wanting to avoid a time of trial. No one really wants to suffer and be tested. But life in this world almost guarantees that we will be tested and tried so what exactly are we asking for? A return to the time of Eden when all that we needed was provided and we had little to do and therefore no sense of accomplishment? The condition of Eden denied our identity as creative beings. Does one fall from such a state or does one begin to grow up? Is it really in our best interest to be saved from trying times? I know that my most difficult experiences have been the greatest sources of any depth that I might have.

At a Diocesan Convention in Michigan a few years ago, a courageous woman shared her story. She currently holds a Masters in social Work and is in ministry with children whose parents are in prison. She knows the situation from both sides because years ago she was convicted of the murder of her husband – a desperate act following just one more beating. Her life had been one of despair and devoid of joy and hope. All of those around her convinced her that she had no inherent worth; she could only be defined by the presence of a man in her life. She did not know that divinity had come back to earth to dwell in her. And when the man in her life beat her – the world’s response to her black eyes and bleeding lips was “Why do you keep making him do this to you?” Eventually she stopped him. Then the world’s response was a conviction on the charge of first degree murder.

Her trials and tribulations took her to unexpected places. She earned degrees while in prison and filed and won a class action lawsuit on behalf of women in prison that has had a profoundly positive effect on many lives. She cannot reverse the damage done to her own children – the eldest of which is in prison for life – the result of growing up hard and mean, defending his brother from others who mocked and spat upon them. Instead of lamenting what she cannot change she has directed her considerable energy and passion to offering a different experience to other children. The noble calling was her response to being tempted, tested and tried.

The New Zealand Prayer Book has an elegant interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer that I’d like to read to you.

Eternal Spirit,

Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,

Source of all that is and that shall be,

Father and Mother of us all,

Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!

The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!

Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!

Your commonwealth of peace and freedom

Sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.

In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.

In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.

From trials too great to endure, spare us.

From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,

Now and for ever. Amen.

“From trials too great to endure, spare us.” For me, that is the most meaningful way to express that statement in our prayer. It allows us to live in the reality of growth through challenge while asking not to be pushed beyond our ability to make a holy response.

When we pray this prayer, we ask for many things; first that we remain aware that God exists beyond our knowing. To contemplate the holiness of God is an invitation into deeper and more thoughtful living. We ask to have what we need which also requires us to ask if we need all that we have. The work of forgiveness is central in the prayer as it well might be in our lives. The trials that we endure are a preface to the statement that God is God, powerful as only God can be and so we can have some confidence in the way that our lives unfold.

Rest assured, we will not forsake the traditional language of this prayer but when we go back to those familiar words it will hopefully be with a renewed sense of what those words mean to us. For ever and ever. Amen.

Don't expect Warren Buffett to do it all

A sermon preached at Faith Episcopal Church on July 2, 2006>

In the past weeks Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have put a face on today’s lessons. The readings from Deuteronomy and 2 Corinthians make no bones about God’s expectation that we share what we have with those who do not. I want to read to you an interesting response to Warren Buffett’s bombshell announcement from a newspaper in India…

“Why do we create wealth? At the very bottom of the pyramid, it is for survival — today and tomorrow. Climb up a little and it’s a house — the right size, in the right area. The next rung is all about high-end memberships — golfing at the right club, smoking the right cigar, vacationing the right cruise. You still need to climb many more rungs, the millionaire-billionaire catalogues — before you reach the peak, the very top of all lists, aspirations, imaginations. That’s where Buffett and Gates sit.

Buffett could well have passed on his wealth to his children, Susan, Howard and Peter. But the conviction of capitalism, of equal opportunity and no more, came in the way: “The idea that you get a lifetime supply of food stamps based on coming out of the right womb strikes at my idea of fairness.”

In his giving, Buffett is completing the circle of capitalism — applying his mind to resources handed to him by society, systematically creating wealth and finally returning that wealth back to society for more Buffetts to harness. He invested with people and companies that could grow money better than he could. He’s now giving with the same idea — to people who can deliver better than he can. Showing, essentially, that creating and giving wealth are two sides of the same gold coin.”

I think that this is a generous assessment of capitalism and one that is not often lived out. But I do appreciate this reporter lifting up such an ideal. The 20^th century created enormous wealth and I’m thrilled to see the Gates/Buffett phenomenon. I would love to have been in on the thought and heart processes that brought first Bill Gates and then Warren Buffett to this point.

But In both of the readings today, the generosity that is recommended is not just personal. We should all recognize how blessed we are and be moved to share that with those who struggle. The chair of any pledge campaign will tell you that that’s a hard enough sell. But this is not just about personal generosity – it is meant to be woven through the social fabric.

The goal of giving to those in need is not to create a perpetual welfare state but to give everyone the resources and opportunities to move out of need and into self sufficiency. The closing thought of the passage from 2 Corinthians is “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.” What a mirror this is for us right now.

I was engaged in a heated conversation with someone the other day about another topic and somehow France came into the conversation. My sparring partner made a fairly sweeping condemnation of the French because as he put, “they expect the government to pay for things” – meaning healthcare and retirement and other social securities. At some point when we have both cooled off enough, I hope to have the occasion to revisit this because I’d like to explain something. First a caveat – I recognize that the social safety net system in France is in need of readjustment if not a fairly large overhaul. But that is not the point. The French people don’t expect this sort of protection unreasonably – they have chosen a form of government specifically to provide such things. France is a socialist country and the people continue to choose that. They have said we will pay the taxes to provide universal health care and employment protections and adequate retirement. That’s their choice and that philosophy of government – the management of the public life looks an awful lot like what today’s lessons are talking about. A culture filled with too many people at one extreme who have way too much and too many people on the other extreme who have nothing is out of balance and not healthy. Can we even imagine a culture that is not like that? If we can imagine it, how might we get there? Can it be achieved voluntarily? That’s the question. It’s a question that appears to have been answered in the birth and rebirth of this nation.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” And then there’s this…

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

How is it possible that a nation founded on such ideals, is filled with those who have so much and yet care so little about those who have too little. It is our country and we have only our voices to lift up to say that if indeed we are this nation conceived in such hope then we expect better from ourselves. It should not be left to the fabulously wealthy who have had epiphanies of generosity to make things right.

Jim Wallis is the editor of Sojourners magazine and an important voice on the subject of faith and politics. His book God’s Politics, spent some time on thy NYT bestsellers list last year. In it he states unequivocally that “Budgets are moral documents. They clearly reveal the priorities of a family, a church, an organization, city or a nation. A budget shows what we most care about and how that compares to other things we care about.” An examination of all of our budgets, personal, here at Faith and those of our town, state and nation need to be assessed with that in mind.

Let’s have a 4^th of July birthday celebration that has some substance and not just colorful flashes. Begin with prayer and then conversation and then action. Let us challenge those who make decisions in our name to consider the values lifted up in today’s readings and seek to create that place conceived in liberty where there may be that fair balance from the abundance we share.