This Is Our Time

Here is my sermon from yesterday. The scripture passage was 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, although I really did not use Paul's writings. An audio copy of the sermon will be available here after Tuesday.

“In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.” That was what Robert Kennedy said on the night that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. “You can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge,” he said. “We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - … filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love…. We have to make an effort…,” Kennedy said, “We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times. What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another…. We can do well in this country,” Kennedy said. “We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder. But the vast majority of… people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land. Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.” And then Kennedy concluded, “Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”

The events of the past week have had me thinking about the evil that has struck our country and about what our response should be. How do we respond as individuals? How do we respond as Americans? And more importantly, how do we respond as Christians? This was not the theme I was going to preach on this week. I was going to talk about Paul’s letters, how they were constructed, what to watch for and pay attention to, and in particular what Paul is doing in his salutation to the Corninthians, a community which he is rebuking and will be covered in the lectionary over the next eight weeks.

But, every time I tried to write that sermon I got pulled in a different direction. I kept going back to the tragic events of a week ago and the blood spilled in my home state of Arizona, and so I scrapped everything I had written and started over again. Sometimes the best laid plans have to be laid aside in order to hear something different, in order to respond to the Spirit and listen to what the Spirit has to say to her church, and I believe that we as a church, we as a people are being called to hear and to do something different, to go a different direction.

Now I know that there are some people who don’t want to hear about this, who don’t want these things discussed from the pulpit who want to keep their religion and their politics separate. But here’s the problem with that: it’s impossible to do for the simple fact that to proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior is to make a political statement. That is a statement of allegiance and it is inherently political. It was political nearly two thousand years ago when making the statement could, and sometimes would, get you killed, and it is a political statement today. It is a political statement which says that our allegiance lies not with our commonwealth, or with our country, or even our political party, but that our allegiance is to God. And the church has something to say about these events. The scriptures have something to say about these events. Paul has something to say about these events. God has something to say about these events.

We find ourselves in a time in which our rhetoric, our words and even our actions have become full of hatred and vileness. This is not limited to one political party or group of people; this is true across the spectrum. It’s being done by everyone. There are no innocent parties in this game. We are all responsible, because we have all tolerated it, and it’s about more than just politics.

Watch television on just about any night of the week and you’ll find similar behavior, from American Idol in which Simon Cowell was allowed to be as nasty to people as he wants to be, to American Chopper in which the father and son routinely yell, curse and throw things at each other, to Judge Judy to even cooking shows like Hell’s Kitchen in which the lead chef routinely belittles the contestants, and that’s just four of the many programs we could reference. When did this become acceptable behavior? When did we as a society decide that behavior that I would consider abhorrent was going to become the norm? Now the response is often made that they are just telling the truth, or keeping it real as the case may be, but when did honesty become brutal and violent? When did we move from telling the truth in love to telling the truth in vicious, sadistic, cruel and aggressive ways? Is this the type of world we want to live in or to raise our children in, and if not then what type of world do we want to live in?

Now there are some who are quick to say that the rhetoric we find surrounding us every day had nothing to do with the actions that took place in Tucson, that this was simply the work of a psychopath and it had nothing to do with anything else. I reject that argument for the same reason that I reject the argument that Loughner acted out only because of the political rhetoric. Both of these seek to find the easy solution, to assign the assign blame and the quick fix to what happened, so that we can move on without having to examine ourselves or our culture. But life is never that simple.

But let’s say for a moment that Loughner was not influenced by anything that is going on in society, that the level or vitriol that surrounds us every day had nothing to do with what happened, that it was just the single solitary act of a deranged individual. Can you honestly look me in the eye and say that we still would not be better off if we were to stop and tone down our verbal assaults on each other? That we would not be better off as people and as a country if we were to treat each other differently? Can you honestly say that we cannot use this as an opportunity to reflect on what we have been doing and the road we are going down and do a little “soul searching” as the Pima County Sheriff said?

One of our biggest problems at the moment is that we are so inundated with ratcheted-up rhetoric that we can no longer properly identify things – if everyone with whom we disagree is said to be Hitler or a Nazi or a socialist or out to destroy the very fabric of our society, then how do we distinguish them with those are truly are evil. Those who truly are a threat. When pundits on TV and politicians and even preachers sound just like Jared Loughner’s rants on YouTube how do we see the difference? How do we identify those who are truly mentally unstable with those who are just trying to get good ratings? There are times when vitriol is needed. The scriptures are full of people using extreme language, including Jesus. We get the term Jeremiad, which is an angry harangue or complaint, as a takeoff of the prophet Jeremiah’s name.

There is a famous Supreme Court free speech case, Cohen v. California, in which Paul Cohen was arrested for wearing a jacket into the Los Angeles court building which said “F%$* the draft” on the back. Today that probably wouldn’t even cause a stir because everyone uses the F-bomb now. Just watch today’s Patriots-Jets game and you’ll see it used a lot. If Mr. Cohen wanted to draw our attention to his feelings about the draft today, he would have to come up with something a lot better than what he did, because no one would notice him in all of the din. He would be just one more crude or rude voice. Sometimes vitriol is necessary to make a point, but when everything is vitriol there is no way to compare it to anything else, and we lose the primary understanding that words matter. That rhetoric matters. It misses the point that words do mean something, that words do create actions and words do create realities. Words matter.

For Christians there can be no argument on this point. If we do not believe that words matter then we might as well shut the doors and go home. If words don’t matter, if words don’t lead to action, if words have no import then there is certainly no point for me to be standing up here speaking to you. If words don’t matter than there is certainly no reason for us to be reading scripture. If words don’t matter then there is absolutely no reason for us to be offering up our prayers to God, there just meaningless words. But we know that words do matter.
Words matter. God said let there be light, and there was light. Words create, words challenge, words form, words matter. John says “and the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.” The Word became flesh. Words matter. Words become flesh. Words create. Words corrupt. Words make realities. If all we ever hear are words of hate, or fear, or rage or animosity or wrath, then we are swimming in a toxic pool which can only corrupt us and fill us with the poisons which surround us.

We as the church have been silent for too long. We have something to say on these matters, because we understand that words matter and we understand the damage we are doing not only to ourselves and our country, but the damage we are doing to our souls. There is no one who is innocent in where we find ourselves. We are all responsible, for we have committed sins of commission and sins of omission, when we have been silent. We are all guilty and it will take all of us to pause, to reflect and to decide to go down another path, to repent, which means to turn around.

Jim Wallis said this week, “Many of us who would never consider violence of the fist have been guilty of violence in our hearts and with our tongues.” And that has certainly been true for me. I have been forced to look at my own behavior in the past week, both what I say and what I think, and have found myself lacking. The church has something to say and we have been silent for too long. It is time for us to stand together and say that words matter and we demand a change, and that change begins with us.

Each night when I’m making dinner, I watch two of my favorite shows on TV. But the problem is that the girls are also in the kitchen with me, playing and talking and laughing and screaming and so I find that I can’t hear what the people on TV are saying and so I turn up the TV, and in response the girls have to talk louder, and in response I have to turn up the TV even more. It becomes a continuing escalation of noise and chaos until finally Linda comes home and asks “Is it loud enough in here?” and that causes us all to pause and to realize how loud everything has become and then turn our volumes down.

As I said in my Chronicle letter this week, this is not about left or right, liberal conservative, democrat or republican, red state of blue state, this is about decency, this is about respect, this is about civility, this is about deciding that this is not the environment that we want to live in nor raise or children or grandchildren in. This is a moment in time in which we can stop and pause, and then turn around, repent, and begin to go another way. This is not about caving in or giving up the right to voice our opinion or our dissent. This is about saying there are appropriate ways of doing things and there are inappropriate ways.

The competing sides are never going to turn down their volume because they don’t think they can; to do so is to give the other side, even for a brief moment, the ability to be the loudest in the room, and so what needs to happen is that we all need to say “It’s too loud in here,” and it will only happen if we do it collectively. One or two of us turning off our TVs or radios, no longer subscribing to some publication, or not voting for someone won’t make much of a difference. It will probably help us and make us feel better, but society won’t be changed as a result, but if we all do it and ask five other people to do it, and they in turn ask five other people, then things will happen and a difference will be made, because if people stop tuning in then they will change, if people don’t vote for a candidate because of their behavior they will change. We can make a difference. We can make a difference and we as Christians have something to say because we understand the power of words to create realities, to change realities, to transform lives, and to revolutionize the world. The word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. Words matter.

Let us not let this tragedy pass us by, instead let us allow this tragedy to change us, to alter the way we live our lives, to alter the way we talk, and to alter the way we interact with our neighbors and all those with whom we come into contact. Words can inspire and words can tear down. Words can build up and words can destroy. Words can offer love and words can offer hate. Words can offer hope and words can bring despair. The words we use reflect the values we hold dear. Jesus said “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Words create realities, words shape lives. Words matter.

Let us not let this be just another tragedy that quickly passes us by but which does not fundamentally change who we are and what we do. This is our moment. This is our opportunity. This is our time. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “When evil people plot, good people plan. When evil people burn and bomb, good people must build and bind. When evil people shout ugly words of hatred, good people commit themselves to the glories of love.” He also said “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

This is our time. The time is up for those who only want to spew hate and division. Their fifteen minutes are over. This is our time. This is our time to declare that words matter. This is our time to declare that we are tired of everyone trying to tear each other down. This is our time to say that the good news is for all people. This is our time to show the world a new way of being, a new way of living, a new way of speaking, a new way of interacting. This is our time, the time of hate and division are over. This is our time. This is the time for love and reconciliation, peace and understanding.

Confucius said it is better to light a candle than rant against the darkness. We have that candle; we have the light of the world, we have that light in the person of Jesus Christ, the word made flesh. This is our time. We have been silent for too long, but no more. The church has something to say about this. God has something to say about this. We have something to say about this. Words matter. Let us pledge that together we are going to make a difference in the world. St. Francis said, “Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.” May it be so in our lives. Amen.