On the formation of saints, before
the movie “Motorcycle Diaries” leaves town, see it, if only for the
moment at the end of a long lark with a friend before growing up, when
the young Ernesto “Che” Gueverra, always with asthma, decides in the
midst of the night of his 24th birthday to swim the Amazon
River! After partying most
of the night! Why? Because he has been partying on
one side of the river, with all the medical and spiritual staff, while
the colony of lepers they serve lives on the other side. As Che plunges into the unknown
dangers of crossing over, people on the one side who love him dearly cry
out for him to stop and return, to act with caution and self-care. As he passes the midpoint,
gasping away, it is clear that the call of the community on the other
side, to risk, to adventure in faith, to compassion and to solidarity,
is becoming the call of his life.
Please let us not ask of one another
that we ignore or avoid the great mix of feeling and reflection we may
be bringing about the election and its grave and lasting implications
for us, for our future, and for our world – which ever side or no side
we find ourselves standing on this morning. Let us be a congregation that
continues to name its elephants in the living room and to believe that
no matter how hard to grasp all the parts, to see all the points of
view, we are a family, a household, together.
I mean, here is Jesus, accounting all
of our blessings as well as our woes, calling on us to love our enemies! To do good to those who hate us! To bless those who curse us, and
to pray for those who abuse us! Not
when they stop doing it. Not
when they become our friends. But
even now, while they are enemies! The
lives of the saints are not about having no enemies but about loving
them. Surely, whatever our challenges we can work them out, with
what Robert Penn Warren calls “world enough and time.”
Some may come this morning feeling
relieved, chest-beaten, victorious and vindicated. Some may come feeling grieved,
heart-broken, violated and vanquished.
A few may come feeling, what’s all this feeling about?! We can still share this table. We can still share this congregation, community,
denomination, and nation. In
fact, I was thinking, anyone who lived, and died, and lived again,
through the past few General Conferences of the United Methodist Church
could not be fully surprised by the election results, nor by how they
were attained. No question,
some of us, collectively speaking, have proved more successful than
others at organizing and mobilizing around what we are now calling
“moral values.” No
matter where we find ourselves standing this morning, we are required by
the saints to ask not only what is successful, what works, what wins,
but also what is faithful, what lasts, even when it loses.
Let us salute those of this
congregation with the chutzpah to run for office – Cameron Crain, Jim
Hardesty, Sheila Leslie. May
their likes and their numbers increase!
Let us congratulate all who worked long and hard for candidates
and propositions. Let us
thank all who voted, often at some inconvenience. If this elephant in our national
living room, this way of doing our politics, of distributing gifts and
graces, riches and resources, for the justice and joy of all, is not to
remain a broken system yielding broken results, then it all take all of
us, more of us all the time, coming out, wherever we are, getting and
staying connected, committed, inspired, involved. Dorothy Day, founder of the
Catholic Worker movement, arrested for civil disobedience well into her
eighties, would say so often, “We cannot afford the luxury of
despair!” Keep on
Truckee-ing!
Jimmy Creech, now of Soulforce,
former United Methodist clergy stripped of his orders, knows something
about enduring with faith. He
writes this week to us all – “We have to keep working for what we
know to be true, just, and righteous.
We have no other choice. To
stop is not only spiritual suicide, it’s complicity with our own
oppression and the oppression of others.” He calls upon us to let whatever
our feelings this morning “fuel our passion for justice, our
compassion for the oppressed, and our demand for respect and
equality.” Our job is to
keep on “preparing the way for [new possibilities] by embodying truth,
compassion, justice, freedom, dignity, and nonviolence in our lives, by
continuing to hold accountable leaders and institutions that do
spiritual and civil violence to [anyone], and by working in the
political process to resist tyranny and to bring about change. We must be steadfast and
persistent.”
He concludes in words to us all, of
whatever party, whatever perspective, -- words we might expect of “all
the saints,” of those (like Sam Song whom we acknowledge this morning
and many others among us) embodying faith both by living with death,
with risk, and by fighting for, standing for, life and for love –
“The struggle will be long and hard, and there may be little if any
success for us to see for some time to come. We struggle in hope, not in
certainty. Hope is born of
our belief in what is true, good, and righteous, not in confidence of
victory. I can offer you no
comfort, no solace, except to say that we are not alone in this
struggle. We have each
other, a glorious community spread across this land. We have the witness of history
that teaches us that social and progressive change has always occurred
because of the groaning, pushing, and striving of a minority, never the
majority; of the oppressed, never the oppressor. And, the God who created us,
loved us into being and loves us still, is with us and won’t bail out
on us.” God is with us
and won’t bail out on us.
We might imagine the spasm of clamor
there has been on our “chat list” for conference this week. Retired pastor John Corson gives
us some perspective: “One
of my mentors was Marion Bird, father of Phyllis [noted biblical
scholar], when I was his pastor at Alum Rock. For years Marion would be
present in front of the Federal Building in San Jose once a week with
his sign protesting the Vietnam War and supporting other justice issues. “I learned the importance of
being a faithful disciple, boldness in standing for one’s convictions
even when standing alone, and the necessity of courage to speak the
truth as you understand it. “We
are just back from Portugal and Spain and had a chance to reflect upon
some history. We saw the
graves/tombs of Isabel, Ferdinand, Charles V, Philip II, and Franco. We observed the ruins of Rome,
the Moors, and the Spanish Conquistadors.
We also viewed the art of El Greco, Valazquez, Goya, and Picasso. The genius of the artist still
has power to speak, while the rulers and conquerors are forever
entombed. “It helps me to
remember those things that endure and those that do not. God is the Alpha ad the Omega. The rise and fall of politicians
is a mere inconvenience in the scope of history. The artist, the preacher, and
witnesses like Marion challenge us to incarnate God’s Word faithfully,
boldy and with courage.”
I believe this is the spirit of the
prophet Daniel, looking at wind after wind stirring up the great sea,
beast after beast, empire after empire, coming up out of the sea, king
after king rising up out of the earth.
But, envisions Daniel, the saints, the “little ones” of
faith, “the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and
possess the kingdom forever – forever and ever.” I believe this is the spirit of
the prophet Martin Luther King., Jr., foreseeing, “The moral arc of
the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It bends toward justice!
Thank God, “all the saints” are
not dead yet! I came back
from my mother’s church in Indiana fired up by their project to
interview saints and elders of the African-American community there to
be sure their history in that place was not lost. Now that we’ve met filmmaker
Ryan Junell, I can imagine his help of we want to do something like
that! Over the past few
months I have been dutifully calling all the listed members of our
congregation whom I do not believe I have met in my first fifteen months
here. One that I spoke with this week, who endures burdens of
medical and, thus, of financial challenge in her family, asked for time
to come in to share grief about the elections. At the very same time, another,
Arthur Johnson by name, says he attended here since 1927-28 and has
known every preacher to preach in this sanctuary! He served fourteen years on the
Conference Board of Social Concerns.
He helped to set up the Wesley Foundation at Cal-Berkeley and to
fund our UM Black Colleges. He
counts such clergy as Bob Moon, John Moore, Dick Hart as friends with
whom he learned to agree to disagree!
He does not like the “progressive” church, and he wonders if
there are any “conservative” United Methodist preachers left! He also agreed to meet me for
coffee in a couple of weeks. Please
pray for us both!
Lastly, speaking of John Moore, once
pastor in this place, he just sent the annual letter Saint Barbara, his
spouse, wrote for more than fifty years before her recent death, often
proclaiming, “Have fun on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas!” This letter concludes with a saintly story – “In 1986
Barbara and I used a generous retirement gift from the church to attend
the World Methodist Conference in Nairobi. The convention center was cold. Barbara would say
‘freezing,’ so during the sessions she would go to the women’s
restroom in the basement. It
occurred to her that if the drier warmed hands, why not warm her whole
body. She put her arms under the drier, and then her upper torso,
and then as much of her body as she could. She looked to one side to see an
attendant watching her. They
both began to laugh then hugged.
“The next day Barbara returned to
the restroom with the large straw hat she had brought from California. Her mother had one just like it
in the Twenties or early Thirties.
Meryl Streep wore one like it in ‘Out of Africa.’ When she realized that no one
else had brought anything similar, she decided not to take it home. Instead, she took it to the
restroom in the conference center where she gave it to the attendant. The woman thanked her, gave her a hug, put the hat on and
looked into the mirror. They
were making so much noise that three other attendants appeared from out
of nowhere to see what the commotion was.
They laughed too. Admired
the hat. Everyone was
hugging everyone. The only
African who could speak English said to Barbara, ‘You are very
close.’ Barbara replied,
‘Oh no. I live very far
away.’ Again the woman
said, ‘’You are very close.’
Barbara tried to explain, saying, ‘I live across the ocean and
across the United States near the Pacific Ocean . . . very far away.’ The African replied, ‘No. In God we are very close.’” Yes! In God we are very close! Amen.
Rev. John J. Auer
