Year C, Pentecost 10, Luke 12.49-56, The times they are a-changin

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

“Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

“Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'

“Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

“Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

“The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'”

(Songwriters: Bob Dylan  (Witmark Demo - 1963))

That was 1963.

When you think of the late fifties and early sixties, what do you remember?  What images come to mind?

The first images that come to my mind are from the television shows that I watched as I grew up.

Leave it to Beaver.

Father knows best.

I Dream of Jeannie.

Mayberry, RFD.

And one episode after another of “The Wonderful World of Disney”.

Those times, in hindsight, are often referred to as the Golden Age of the American experience.

The Baby Boom was underway.

Suburbs were sprawling out all across America.

Life was good!

And yet, even as we entertained ourselves with the wonderful images of the good life, there was a restless wind of change in the air.

A black lady, Rosa Parks, refused to move to the back of the bus.

Americans first heard about a small nation in Southeast Asia, called Vietnam.

President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

Later, his brother Bobby, and Dr. Martin Luther King would also fall to assassin’s bullets.

The times, they were a changing.

If ever there were a time that exemplified the verses in today’s Gospel lesson it was that time.

From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

While we watched the “Wonderful World of Disney”, the Watts Riots raged.

Jesus said “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

Those are probably not the most comforting words of Jesus, and they are difficult for us to hear.

There have been a lot more sermons preached on “love your neighbor as you love yourself” than on these verses.

And yet, with Jesus comes change, and with changes comes conflict.

At the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, we hear the Magnificat, or Mary’s Song.

It begins nice enough.

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

50 His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.”

If Mary had stopped singing there, perhaps we would have been more comfortable.  But Mary doesn’t stop singing there.  She goes on to say:

51 He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

53 he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Those are words about change, and the transformative power of Jesus.

And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'

Mary’s Song is not Good News for the proud, the powerful, and the rich.

She sings of the changes that God promises in a world redeemed by love.

And whenever the winds of change blow, conflict ensues.

My Mother-in-Law used to say “Whenever God is at work, Satan is not far behind.”

That’s one way to look at the conflicts and divisions we experience in life.

God is doing a good thing but the Devil is actively opposing God’s will, and conflict is the result.

Then, as we wrestle with our divisions, we can debate who is on God’s side and who is on the Devil’s.  And of course, that debate itself will cause conflict.

One of the things I learned when I was studying philosophy in my undergraduate work, was called the Hegelian dialectic. 

What that means is that in every situation there is a thesis, and an antithesis, opposing viewpoints that are in tension with each other.

Transformation takes place as these opposing viewpoints, the thesis and antithesis, merge into a synthesis.

What I find myself longing for is that amid all the polarization that we experience in society and the Church, we might see these differences, not as a source of division, but rather as a creative tension that will resolve in a faithful and Godly way.

That may be wishful thinking on my part.

The struggle for us is that we agree in principle, but struggle when it gets down to specifics.

I continue to return to our purpose statement as a congregation:

“God’s purpose for our congregation is to welcome, love, and serve all in our local and global community.”

That’s the principle we agree on.

The conflict occurs, though, when we get specific.

If we were to say that our purpose is to welcome, love, and serve specific groups of people, conflict would follow.

On example of that occurred in the last couple of weeks.

The ELCA Assembly, reaffirmed its long standing commitment to minister to immigrants and refugees through such organizations as “the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services”.  As I reported to you, following our Synod Assembly, our commitment to this ministry is such that the Federal Government has requested our assistance in dealing with the influx of immigrants at our southern border.

But, in reaffirming this commitment, the Churchwide Assembly chose to use the word “Sanctuary”.

This resulted in some people being convinced we were advocating doing something illegal, which we’ve been assured was not the intent.

We will see how this all works out.

But the point is simply this:

It is easier to say we will “welcome, love, and serve ALL” in our local and global community,

Than it is to say we will “welcome, love, and serve the immigrant and refugee” in our midst.

What I will say is this:  That whenever we try to faithfully do the work of Jesus, there will be a tension, a struggle, a wrestling with each other over what is faithful and what is not.

But what I also will say is that I believe, that as painful as this conflict can be, God will work through that to bring about a greater good.

What we are called to do amid all the changes and conflicts of this world, is to trust that indeed, ‘the Father knows best’.

Amen

Year B, Pentecost 5, Mark 4.35-41, Peace! Be Still!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

In the Gospel of Mark there are two storms that the disciples encounter as they attempt to cross the Sea of Galilee.

Dr. Don Juel, the seminary professor under whom I studied the Gospel of Mark made the observation for us that these storms represent much more than just the arbitrary weather patterns of the day.  The storms that the disciples encounter are highly significant in Mark’s telling of the Gospel story, and they reflect the inner turmoil the disciples experienced, not merely a weather phenomenon.

Specifically, it is when the disciples cross over the Sea to the other side that they encounter these storms and come face to face with their fears.

The Other Side.

The region beyond the Sea of Galilee, to the east and north, was a Gentile territory.  Not Jewish.  Foreign ground.

These words were especially relevant to the Church at the time the Gospel was written because Christians were struggling with the question of their mission to the Gentiles.

The message of the Gospel had largely been rejected by those in Israel, and the early Christian believers, following Paul, had to make the journey into the Gentile world of the greater Roman Empire.

They became sojourners in a foreign land.

And this journey, away from their home into the unknown, caused great fear.

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Fear is a theme throughout the Gospels.

From the angel’s greeting to Mary, to the disciple’s hiding behind the locked door on Easter evening, fear was their constant companion.

Fear is one of the most basic emotions of the human experience.  It produces within us either the desire to flee, or to fight.  It is part of our survival instinct. 

On the one hand it is our fears that keep us alive. 

But on the other hand, our fears can enslave us.

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Fear overcomes us when we feel threatened, when we leave our comfort zone, when we face the unknown, and especially when we are out of control.

We all have our fears, and sometimes those fears come to the surface and get the best of us.

One of our primary fears is of our own deaths.  Actually, I had one person tell me that it wasn’t death that made him afraid, it was dying.  There’s a difference. 

This fear of dying, not death, is most evident in one simple fact:  No one, I repeat, no one, wants to end up in a nursing home for the remainder of their life.  Maybe in senior housing.  If need be, perhaps even in assisted living.  But absolutely no one wants to end up spending their last years in a nursing home unable to care for themselves.

It is one of our greatest fears.

There is another type of fear that grips us.

This is like the fear that gripped the disciples as they crossed over the Sea to the other side, to the Gentile world.  It’s the fear of being a minority.

I’ve experienced that fear.

I grew up in South Dakota.  South Dakota is in fact two very separate and different states.  The first is in the East and is entirely white, and I mean entirely.  That’s where I grew up.

The other is primarily in the West, and it comprises 7 major Indian Reservations.  When, as a white boy, you find yourself on a Reservation where everyone else is native, fear is one response.

I felt the same fear when I first experienced an all black neighborhood.

It’s a fear of feeling displaced, of being the minority, of being out of control.

Such fears grip our nation.  They are causing storms to rage all around us.  They unsettle us. 

2043

That’s at the root of many of our fears that are front and center in our nation’s life.

2043

That is the year according to the United States census bureau that White people will cease to be the majority in our country.  At that point there will be more people of color, be it black, Hispanic, oriental, native, and other groups such as Arabs, or mixed race, than there are White people.  White people will remain for a time the largest ethnic and racial block, but no longer the majority.

2043, just twenty five years from now.

That produces fear within many in our country.  Real, palpable fear.

2043 looms on the horizon for two reasons:  First, because the bulk of immigration to our country is no longer from Europe, and second, because the minorities in our country are having far more children that white people.  This is especially true of Hispanic people who, in part because of their Roman Catholic background, have more babies than any other ethnic group in the United States.  And blacks are not far behind.

The birth rate is significant because even if we sealed the borders of our nation, built a wall, and kept all minorities from immigrating, we would only delay the day when whites become a minority.

This is what is driving the white supremacy movement in our country.

Fear.

If you want to understand why the issue of immigration has become such a major storm in American politics, specifically along our southern border, you need look no further than 2043.

Last week I mentioned the immigration crisis we are facing as a country, and specifically how troubled I have been about the policy of separating children from their parents as their status is reviewed.

This week I’m deeply grateful that President Trump has taken action to stop this practice.

One of the other things that happened is that when I posted my sermon on-line it generated more responses than any other sermon I’ve posted, by far.

One response in particular struck me:

“Never does He call us to welcome rapists, murderers, pedophiles, hate filled blood worshipping monsters into our homes.”

“hate filled blood worshipping monsters”

Can you hear the fear implicit in those words?

There are also other signs of fear in our country.

I’ve shared with you before that one of the troubling things I deal with at my other job is that a number of my co-workers come to work with loaded weapons.  They refuse to drive without a pistol loaded and ready to fire.

Fear.

It goes beyond simply floundering in a boat amid a storm at sea. 

One of the things about fear is that it often breeds hate.

Fear is why we have ‘hate crimes’ in our country.

Fear.

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

“Then in their trouble they cried to the LORD, and you delivered them from their distress. You stilled the storm to a whisper and silenced the waves of the sea. Then were they glad when it grew calm, when you guided them to the harbor they desired.

Let them give thanks to you, LORD, for your steadfast love and your wonderful works for all people.”

These are the words from our Psalm today.

I encourage you to go home and read the entire Psalm 107 as it deals so beautifully with the fears we face.

Faced with all sorts of fear, time after time the Psalmist declares:

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

and he delivered them from their distress;

Faith casts out fear.

That’s the first thing to bear in mind. 

“Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”

Jesus is in control.

If we really believe that, there is no need to fear.  That’s why we hear so often the phrase, “Fear not!” in the Bible.  Jesus is in control.

Trust in Jesus, and you need not fear, not death, nor people different from ourselves, nor the threats that surround us like a great storm at sea.

A second thing is to have courage.  Courage is different than faith. 

“In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!"

We will have fears, and because our faith is often not yet perfect, those fears remain with us.

Courage, though, is the ability to act even in the face of our fears.  “Good courage”, is the willingness to love, even when doing so makes us vulnerable.

One experience I’ve had as a pastor was helping a woman who was being abused by her husband.  This is very risky, and violence is all too common.

“Are you afraid?” a colleague asked me.

“Yes, I responded, but I still need to do it.”

In that moment God had given me the courage to act even though I was afraid. 

And sometimes that is what we need.

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

How do we do that when we are afraid of our neighbor?  And, in some cases, for good reason.

It takes courage, and that is something God gives us, when we need it the most.

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Jesus is with us in the midst of the storm.  Take heart.  Have faith, and be of good courage.  Amen