Community of Hope Sermon
Chuck Pfeifer preaching.
WE ARE MORE THAN WE THINK WE ARE
Sermon-COH UCC – September 5, 2010
Scriptures:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 (Written before and after Babylonian Captivity (586 BCE) – 640 BCE – 570 BCE
Psalm by Janet Morely from “Celebrating Women" Morehouse-Barlow Co., Inc., Wilton, Connecticut
Luke 14:25-33
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and
curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Morely Psalm
(Printed in “Celebrating Women" Morehouse-Barlow Co., Inc., Wilton, Connecticut)
(Note: Only Bold Type parts are included in Bulletin.)
I will praise God, my Beloved, Her presence satisfies my soul; Her touch brings me to life; Her embrace nourishes me, body and spirit; The beauty of her face is When she looks upon me When she asks for my love God I fear your terrible mercy; If I fall into the strong currents of your desire |
But how shall I refuse my Beloved, On the edge of your abyss I look down Even in chaos you will bear me up; For the chaos is yours also, If I trust her, surely her power Though I lose all knowledge and all security, But she will recreate me, Then will I praise my Beloved |
Luke 14:25-33
Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who
comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."
We Are More Than We Think We Are
by Charles Pfeifer
Recently I have been gripped by a book written by Cormack McCarthy titled The Road. It's about a father and son who walk along a highway in a post-apocalyptic American landscape. Plant and animal life has been destroyed. Nothing moves except for windblown ash that covers everything. All is gray. The sun is obscured by pollution. Savage gangs roam the devastated cities and countryside pillaging and killing. Cannibalism is rampant. Throughout the book, the father, sustained by love for his son, seeks to maintain his humanity even as circumstances pressure him to descend to the kill-or-be-killed attitudes of those around him. The son keeps pulling him back asking, “Papa, are we still the good guys?” And the father answers, “Yes, we are still the good guys.” “We are carrying the fire.” “How can I carry the fire,” asks the son. “It's inside you,” answers his dad.
“Are we still the good guys?” This question echo's in me as I experience the violence of our world fueled by hatred, distrust, fear and greed. Global warming – oil spills – petty bickering by politicians as disaster threatens on every front – economic instability – attacks upon those who are different – Democrats vs Republicans – Christians vs Muslims – Rich vs Poor – Liberals vs Conservatives. How are we to preserve our humanity, our capacity for love and compassion, in these confusing times?
The Biblical texts for today relate to this question. The text in Deuteronomy 30 puts it starkly. “Today I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life (or keep the Covenant) so that you and your descendants may live.” Jesus' words in Luke are equally stark. "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus' words concerning family are even more jarring when we consider that he was living in a tribal society where family was necessary for survival. Jesus is saying that to maintain our humanity we need to keep our eyes on the prize. Even our most cherished relationships and all of our plans for a successful life must come second to this focus. He then makes an even more radical demand. He says we must carry the cross. It's important here to remember the significance of the cross in first century Israel. The cross was the Roman form of execution. And as part of the execution ritual, the condemned man was forced to carry the cross to his site of execution as a means of further humiliating him and the population. When Jesus urges his followers to pick up the cross, he is saying that living in the reign of God means refusing to be seduced into the cycle of domination and violence practiced by the culture even if it means voluntarily submitting to our own death.
When I was younger, these words of Jesus about carrying the cross scared the bejeebers out of me. It seemed that Jesus' way was masochistic. Why would God want me to suffer and die to prove I was faithful? I have since come to a different understanding with the help of New Testament scholar, Walter Wink and his book, The Human Being. Walter argues that we, as human beings, are much more than we think we are. Jesus was able to live out his potential as a human being with such brilliance that people saw him as a manifestation of God. Yet they couldn't see their own human potential in themselves. Using psychological jargon, early Christians projected or put their own human potential onto Jesus.
I admit that I have done this with people that I idolize, people like Walter Wink. I had a powerful admiration for his intellect, his writings and his ability to lead seminars. I put him on a pedestal. I failed to realize that my idolization of Walter Wink's abilities was a signal that I possessed similar abilities. Granted, I'm not the scholar that he is, but I still possess the abilities that I admire in him.
The same thing happened with Christianity. Christians failed to see that Jesus was exemplifying what it means to be a human being and that each person has within him or herself this potential. So when Jesus says, “Pick up your cross and follow me,” he is saying, “Live into your own potential.” This was Jesus answer to the question, “ How do we maintain our humanity in these difficult times?” “How do we carry the fire?”
The shift for me in all of this is that I don't have to try to measure up to Jesus to have life. I need to get in touch with my own true humanity and live it out even when it runs counter to what society sees as the “right way.” It also means, having the eyes to see this true humanity in my neighbors, friends and enemies.
The Monk, Thomas Merton, saw this true humanity in people while visiting Louisville. (Thomas Merton - Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander p. 156) He writes, “At the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.. . . I have the immense joy of being man (human), . . There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. . . . If only we could see each other as we really are. . . There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . I suppose the big problem would be the we would fall down and worship each other. . .
Mother Teresa was also in touch with this inner humanity when she said, “Do the little things with great love.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. explored this inner humanity in an Easter sermon that is excerpted on our bulletin cover. King observed that there are lawless people who break laws and law abiding people whose standards come from societal customs or mores. He then referred to a third kind of people, people who obey an inner law, an inner criterion that outer laws can never demand, one that is unenforceable. These people follow what they know is true and right, what will eventually be part of the structure of the universe. King concluded, telling his listeners, “And this is what the cross is saying to us this morning: greatness comes when we are obedient to the unenforceable.”
When I am in touch with my deep humanity, being faithful is no longer heroic or difficult. It is simply being in touch with my true self. Then I have a kind of personal authority that is not derived from my position or my reaction to what others say or think. We all have times when we are in this space. We just know that we are being true to something deep within us. Some of us describe this in religious language and others use secular terms. In either case, this is the deep humanity that Jesus' followers admired in him.
I have mentioned my sister Sue to some of you. She's a middle-school counselor in Sioux Falls. She has a way about her that puts people at ease. These days, Sue is living with cancer. Does it concern her? Certainly. Yet she continues living her life while caring for the kids she counsels. People who know her characterize her as inspiring and courageous. But for Sue, it's just living her life. She is an example for me of one who lives in tune with her deep humanity.
I believe that each of us has experienced this deep humanity at times in our lives. Let's see if we can fill this sanctuary with remembrances of this deep humanity. Please take a few minutes right now to remember a time in your life when you just knew that you were in touch with something deep and authentic. It may have been during a decision making process concerning your future. It may have been while talking with a friend or while playing the piano or when walking outside in nature. These times may have been momentous or they may have seemed relatively insignificant. So now, take a couple of minutes in silence to remember a time when you have touched this humanity in yourself. Remember the situation and re-experience the emotions of this time. (Sometimes it's helpful to concentrate on the first thing that comes to mind. This is often the thing you need to remember.)
--A couple minute pause--
When you are ready, please return to the room. Did you feel anything? Did you sense this potential in you, in us? Now, look around at the other people in this room. Do you see each other differently?
Remember, the purpose of this inquiry is to explore how we can maintain our humanity in these dehumanizing times. It is about carrying our cross. Remember also that engaging our deep humanity is a process that we grow into. It's not about gritting our teeth and willing this transformation.I want to remind us that living authentic lives in tune with our deep humanity does involve crucifixian. But crucifixian comes in many forms. When I was director of Madison Urban Ministry, I tried to affect people's attitudes even as I sought to promote changes in unjust systems. For this reason I spent a lot of energy promoting dialogue and deep listening among groups and people who saw one another as adversaries. I still remember a series of six dialogues that MUM sponsored between the religious right and left. We dialogued on hot button issues like abortion, capital punishment and homosexuality. A number of my activist friends told me that these conversations were nice but that they didn't involve any specific actions. They said that talking is just “frosting on the cake.” I, for my part, felt that these dialogues were the cake. So for me, crucifixian came in the form of being ignored rather than being opposed.
I also want to note that there are a couple of dangers in carrying our cross – in getting in touch with our deep humanity. The first, I have already mentioned. This is the danger of recognizing this deep humanity in Jesus or in other people whom we admire, but not being able to see it in ourselves. This may be because we denigrate ourselves or because we fear the implications of living into our true humanity.
The second danger is that we get puffed up in the wonder of our deep humanity and lose our groundedness. Jesus warns against this tendency in the second half of his statement in Luke. He sites two examples where people overestimate their resources. The first relates to a man building a tower that he can't finish because he runs out of money. The second relates to a king who goes into battle with fewer troops than his adversary. In both cases, Jesus cautions that we must be realistic. In other words, I shouldn't aspire to be a Walter Wink in terms of his abilities. Rather I need to be a Chuck Pfeifer in terms of my own abilities and circumstances.
I want to close this reflection with a yearning that I have for faith communities in general and for the Madison Christian Community and the Community of Hope in particular. I yearn to see churches, synagogues, mosques and other spiritual centers as places where people are trained in seeing the deep humanity in themselves and in others. I imagine these as places where people are supported in exploring and then living out their authentic humanity. I imagine them as places where love and compassion are practiced and supported, personally and institutionally.
Finally, I have no illusions about the difficulty of this mission. We like Jesus, will experience the censure of people and institutions that are consumed by fear, distrust and hatred. We will have to take up the cross. Yet, as we grow into our deep humanity, we will experience a vitality that is life giving. We will be able to say, with the characters in Cormack McCarthy's novel, “We are carrying the fire.”
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