“Those Coming After: No Place to Run To, No
Place to Hide”
Reno/Sparks is not exactly a union town.
There are jobs here but not necessarily the wages, safety, security,
benefits and conditions. Just last Lent Tom Stoneburner, director of the
Alliance for Worker Rights, died suddenly. His work is going undone. Now
Kiko Reyes, heart and soul of the culinary workers union here, died Tuesday
in a fall from the roof of his home. Labor leaders, workers for economic
justice – who historically brought us the right to organize and to bargain,
child labor laws, the 8-hour day, Worker Compensation and Social Security,
as well as some solidarity with the workers of the world – are heroes and
heroines of our lives and our communities. We cannot afford to lose them.
Our title this morning comes from the way
John the Baptizer always is pointing beyond himself, to “the one who is
coming after.” That one is Jesus – who may be symbolic to us of the “next
generations,” those for whom we try to prepare a better, more liveable,
just, and peaceful world. There is nothing so precious, at Christmas and
all through our lives, as the passing of gifts from one generation to the
next. If you have the chance to spend Christmas around little kids, do it!
How do we value more our elders and
ancestors, their histories and their legacies – so that we are sure to pass
them on? How do we build trust and hope in our children and youth – so that
they may grow bright and bold, confident and creative about their future
with God? We dare not hide our gifts, or let our lights die under bushels
of false protection. And we dare not hide from our children! The reason
these two characters with the gourd heads stand in front of the pulpit today
is to display some of the gifts our youth group finds in one another.
Without naming names, here are some of the
things they see and value in one another – memory of random stuff --
openness to new things – fearlessness --lots of effort toward the group --
very literate – mysterious --classical music -- compassion and kindness –
silence -- good at telling stories – composure –video -- good partner in
confusing people -- love of kitties -- artistic ways – dances – laughter --
good cuddler – quietness – photography -- great attitude – goatee -- great
listener -- interesting games -- help with homework – motherly -- mad
drummer – pranks -- crude sense of humor – loyalty – rhythmic – chivalrous
-- great at getting the group involved – opinionated – prodigy -- completely
himself -- always sharing -- great Frisbee skills – craftiness -- artistic
juices -- never know the mood she’ll be in -- tolerable and courageous --
new one to pick on – trustworthiness -- stands firm in values -- helped us
become a group . . . .
Not all of these would make the apostle
Paul’s traditional lists of spiritual gifts. But the variety and the
insight of these gifts encourage us to believe we can see and build on the
best in each other, on what each of us has to offer for the good of the
whole. We are invited to greet these symbolic, stick-figure gift-givers
around us this season, to look them in the eye and know that each one of us
is a given, a gift, and a giver to all! Belonging to Jesus, Paul stipulates
here, means giving constant attention to gifts of the Spirit and to
discernment between what we call “good” --that which gives life – and
“evil” -- that which destroys it.
Paul says be should cut each other a lot of
slack, but we should not be gullible, taken in or taken advantage of by one
another. That’s a hard one for me, I know. I always try to err on the side
of being too trusting and too generous, rather than not enough. I never
know how many times I am lied to or misled. I guess I don’t worry much
about. If I have it, whatever it is, I try to give it. Often I ask myself,
would I want to trade places with that person? Then it becomes a lot harder
to judge them. All I know is, Paul says we are meant to be both holy and
whole! We are meant to be fully put together – mind and body, heart and
soul! We are meant to pray for one another, and greet one another with holy
embraces. Every one of us needs to know we are seen and valued by others.
We are not yet a perfect congregation –
thank God! – but we are partly and potentially on the way! And we may not
be a bad match of congregation and pastor – as each of us, Staff-Parish
Relations Committee and pastor, has to let the bishop know this week if we
want this appointment to continue. One consideration is, in this year of
many challenges, we already have given over $20,000 in apportionments to the
conference and general church. Yet our fair share of the whole conference
giving now challenges us to give $40,000 more yet this year! I know we can
do it.
Let us put it in perspective of all the
other gifts and givings of our lives. As Jesus says, our treasure is likely
to be where our hearts are! The resources are among us if there. We are
not talking pledges but gifts. It helps us as a congregation, it helps me
as a pastor, if we pay in full. If we do not pay, it is harder to play!
And I know we want to help make our connection work for all of our people.
It is harder to change the system if we are not a part of it in good
standing. So we will be reminding ourselves each week of how our
apportionments witness and serve in the church and the world. Not
everyone’s gift is giving more. But those who are given the gift to give
more, please help us all get there together!
Speaking of no place to run to, no place to
hide (That’s by Martha and the Vandellas, for those who remember!), did you
hear about these two guys sleeping out when a bear wanders into the camp?
As they prepare to flee, one stops to put on his running shoes. The other
asks, what are you doing that for? You can’t outrun that bear! The first
guy exclaims as he takes off, I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have
to outrun you! And that’s the way it seems to be with so much of our life
in this world. We try to outrun one another. We try to stay just a step
ahead of the devil, as we stay – one step ahead of each new disaster.
I like the one about the persons racing in
Special Olympics. When one of them falls near the finish, the others stop
and go back to help them and wait for them -- so they can all finish
together! I also like how, when our kids were little, and playing
hide-and-go-seek, someone would no sooner finish counting to ten, than the
youngest would pop out from wherever he was to shout, here I am! Then he
would proceed to point out politely where everyone else was hiding. Here I
am! That is what Isaiah and John make unmistakably plain this morning – God
has popped out of all hiding! God is coming, ready or not! Willing, or
not! Able, or not! We have been hiding from God so well for so long. Yet
God wants to offer us everything! God wants to fulfill the whole promise of
God. Why is it so hard for us to trust that God is for real? That God
really will provide for us -- and for life in this world?
We begin running and hiding and covering up
our anatomies with Adam and Eve in the garden! Even God has to ask, where
are you? That is still the question. Where are we? Now that our God is at
hand? And declaring our warfare is ended? Nothing has been held against
us! It is time to disarm ourselves! I always like to use this season of
swords-into-ploughshares to invite us to hand in our handguns. If you have
a handgun at home, bring it in – anonymously, if you want. We’ll melt it
down – make a sculpture of it! The newspaper says 1.7 million kids in
country live in homes with loaded and unlocked guns! What is up with that?
What is that all about? Now that God is declaring our debts repaid! We are
free to start “spending” ourselves again – but in new and different ways!
It is time to invest in God’s future – God’s
Jubilee of new beginnings for all, in all parts of our lives – in all things
that make for justice and peace. It is time to start a new world -- one to
pass on to our children, and to all those coming after!
Who convinces us anyway, that our nakedness,
our vulnerability, are so shameful? Why do we have to run from each other,
hide out from each other, and arm ourselves against one another in the first
place? Who teaches us that our God and neighbor exist to be feared? That
God only stalks us to punish us? To try to catch us all naked and covering
up?
It is always so much easier just to be
truthful, direct, honest – with God, with each other, and with ourselves –
not to mention with all our children! It is hardest of all for us to be
honest with our children – especially about our faith! To explain that we
really believe in God’s promise of a better world for them. We really
believe we can help God to do it! If we tell the truth, we don’t have to be
always remembering what lie we told last. We can speak from the heart every
moment.
Advent means we are made for closeness, not
for closets. Our stick-figure gift-givers would say, we are made for
hugging, not for hiding! Even for kissing, not for killing! For making
love, not war!!
We are made for relationships with one
another, not for reactions to one another. The day is coming -- and now is,
say Isaiah and John -- when we will no longer fear our own freedom, our own
liberation! Rather, we will be free to be fully the persons and peoples we
are and are made to be – in all our complexity, all our diversity, fully
accepted, fully included – in Christ, in the church as the body of Christ.
We will be fully re-covered in such a way we do not have to deny ourselves
or anyone else. We do not have to run and hide, and fear and defend any
more – from God, from others, or from our true selves! We are free to be
clothed in garlands instead of ashes! The oil of gladness instead of
mourning! The mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit! The love of God
in Jesus Christ has re-covered us all – now and forever! The future is
open. God is at hand!
Our children and our young people may lead
us by their examples of speaking freely what lies in their hearts and on
their minds. Let us look to them and listen to them. Alycia Wong-Stuart,
who just turned 13, is about to cut her hair for the first time in her
life. She is going to give her hair to the Cancer Society to make wigs for
people without their hair. She is going to give what people have pledged to
her in the process to a project bringing clean water to children and
families in Africa! Talk about the gifts of improving maternal health, and
of ending killer-diseases – our Millennium Development Goals for today! Bob
and Pat Williams – a little older than Alycia! -- are about to be sent by
the Red Cross for three weeks of relief-work among those displaced by
hurricanes! We bless you all today!!
Together we may repair and restore our lives
and our life together. In Isaiah’s vision, we may build up the ancient
ruins of death and destruction – here at home and around the world as well!
There are so many ruined cities, so many devastations of many generations –
by way of flight and neglect, abandonment and decay, exploitation and
greed. Our very own church and congregation are signs of renewal and of
reinvestment both in location and in vocation of being “downtown” in
Reno/Sparks! We represent hope for our neighbors, old and new – hope for
our children and for ourselves. But as our old buddy John Wesley always
reminds us, before we can do all the good that we can, we have got to stop
doing the harm we are doing! For every oppressed there is an oppressor.
For every afflicted there is an afflicter. For every heartbroken, in the
more public sense, there is a heartbreaker. For every captive a captor.
For every imprisoned, a well-paid, state-supported, out-of-sight,
out-of-mind imprisoner.
No more running shoes, sisters and brothers.
No more handguns -- and no more hiding places! Let us disarm ourselves.
Let us all come to the light – together. God calls us to witness the light
in and with our whole lives. Not so much to be the light, to gravitate to
center-stage for ourselves – but to witness the light, both as it is coming
and as it already has come. John the Baptizer is so refreshingly clear
about who he is not! He is not the Messiah, not Elijah, not even the
prophet! He is just a voice, just a vision – in the wilderness, on the
margins, in the streets -- wherever folks might be hidden in shame and
despair. God who is in Christ is light to the hidden, comfort to the exile,
return to the homeless, forgiveness to the sinful – simply because God loves
us! Simply because God is God! Every one of us is, in God’s sight,
re-coverable – able to be made new! None of us is in Christ beyond the
ever-reclaiming, -redeeming, -renewing reach of our God! Not even those on
Death Row – including Jesus, Paul and all of us.
Each and every last one of us, persons and
peoples, has a place in this world! There is room for us all in God’s inn!
Or else God makes room in the stable! God’s very coming and Advent among us
and for us tells the whole world there is room for us all! God is not
waiting to bring us to heaven. God is, right now, bringing heaven to us!
It is not “heaven” God loves so much as to give us God’s only first child.
Rather, God loves what? The world so much! God loves what?
The world so much! God loves what? The
world so much!! And all that is in it. Amen.
