Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Psalm 79
I Tim 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-8a
It has been nearly two weeks now, but we are not over it. And in some sense, we will NEVER be over 911-01. But out of our grief, the conversations are less and less about what HAPPENED and more and more about what will happen NEXT. At the coffeepot, the dinner table, on the evening news, the question is not IF but WHEN and WHAT are we going to do. Not whether we will use violence; but WHAT KIND OF violence.
So go our conversations. And so goes political talk and debate. Right off the bat I want to assure you that I am not joining that political conversation today. I have no intention of offering from the pulpit any kind of political talk about what our nation should do. I am going to attempt something much more dangerous. I want to talk THEOLOGY this morning, theological reflection on balms and bombs.
I do so for two reasons: The first is the conviction that our faith should shape our lives, our personal lives, our relationships, our social lives, and our political lives. I often hear folks say they don't want the preacher and the church to talk politics. Fine, today we'll talk theology, and how our faith and our reading of scripture shape our lives and SHOULD shape our lives. You may end up preferring I talk politics instead.
The other reason I think we need to reflect theologically on our nation's crisis has to do with prayer. If we believe in prayer - and the outpouring of prayers and participation in prayer gatherings in recent days suggests people really DO believe in prayer, our theology matters. If we believe in prayer, we need to know what to pray for.
Our President and other leaders tell us that our nation's response to terrorism won't be a flash in the pan. They use words like a protracted war on terrorism, and that we are going to be in for the long haul. Well, theologically, I think we are for a long haul on this one, too. The issues are complex, the questions are hard, and the answers can be fleeting and tentative at best. Consider my reflections today as just a start.
Providentially, our lectionary of appointed lessons for today give us a place to start.
In the prophet Jeremiah we read: My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? These words of scripture capture our feelings so succinctly, so poignantly, so clearly. I have read these words before, but never have they had such power as in recent days. Our joy may not be gone, but it sure is hard to muster. Our hearts are sick with grief for yesterday and anxious for today and fearful for tomorrow. Never have we as a people, as a nation, so desperately yearned for a healing and hopeful balm for our sorrowing souls.
The theme of national grief and anger is expressed in Psalm 79. How many have cried out to God in prayer and despair Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, [O God] and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name.
The gentle, calm call to prayer we read in Timothy has been enacted repeatedly throughout our land: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.
And then we come to Jesus' parable of the dishonest or shrewd steward. The consensus
of scholars is that this troubling and puzzling parable is an authentic parable
of Jesus, but it is a parable largely unknown in the church and ignored by preachers.
The evangelist Luke and the early church didn't know what to do with this parable
either, so they appended in succeeding verses a couple of interpretations of
the parable, and missed the point each time. These words seem odd and out of
place any day, but especially now. Or are they?
A rich man had a manager for his holdings. We see nothing unusual there. He discovers the manager was cheating him. He demands an audit, which will surely lead to his firing. Again, we see nothing unusual. Then the shrewd manager calls in his master's debtors and settles the accounts. Except he is overly generous with his soon to be former employer's money, giving terms any debtor would claim in a heartbeat. Seeing the writing on the wall, the shrewd manager figures he is going to need some friends when this is over, and what better way to gain friendship than through generosity? Again, we see nothing unusual. Then the master hears about what is going on - and what does he do? Condemn him? Strangle him on the spot? NO! Unbelievably, the master is impressed by his dishonest but shrewd manager's moxie and he commends him!
The shrewd manager was in a crisis. An economic crisis, to be sure, but his is more than that. More than losing his job - as traumatic as that is. It was for him more than losing his livelihood and standard of living, as terrible as that is. The shrewd manger is on the verge of losing his very identity, very being as a person.
So what's the point? Jesus is not advocating, "greed is good", to use a phrase from the movie Wall Street. Nor does the parable mean that God rewards immoral behavior. No, Jesus uses a provocative character - a man devoid of character - to hook us into an important truth about religious faith. Jesus is trying to draw his listeners out of their complacency, and for sure, this parable does exactly that. For the parable startles us with a simple truth: The crisis of the coming rule of God calls for decisive and radical action. A critical and drastic situation calls for a drastic response.
A drastic situation calls for a drastic response. That is the message heard throughout our land today. Otherwise reasonable people are demanding very unreasonable actions. Otherwise peace-loving non-violent types are calling for violent action by our government. Otherwise law-abiding citizens, who would never dream of not following due legal process are advocating assassination. I even heard an African American preacher friend of mind propose that our government go after Ben Laden and other terrorists and not bother with the law and the courts, but just string 'em up on the spot! Lynch them! It sent chills up my spine.
The parable calls for drastic response to a crisis. Does this mean we throw the rest of the Christian tradition out of the window? That "turn the cheek" no longer applies? That we no longer are called upon to pray for our enemies?
I don't think so. For even the drastic actions of the parable take place within the context of human life. And what the parable reminds us is that all actions take place within a double context of GODLY GRACE and HUMAN SINFULNESS. "abounding grace and abounding sin"
God's grace abounds. God's forgiveness abounds. God's call to love and to lives of grace abounds. And God's call to love and to grace is unqualified. Even by crisis. This last week a politician said to those who harbor terrorist, "God forgives. America won't." That was a politician talking. Those words are blasphemy for a person of faith.
God's grace abounds within a world of SIN. If we have learned nothing else out of the terrible tragedies of recent days, it is that even as grace abounds, so also SIN ABOUNDS. In our contemporary do whatever feels good to me world, sin isn't talked about much. 911-01 reminds us that sin is pervasive and persistent.
Out of grace, God created a perfect world. Through human sin, the beautiful
world is marred and broken. Despite grace, evil abounds. Because of sin, God's
kingdom cannot come to fulfillment this side of heaven. And because of sin,
people of faith sometimes break God's law to advance God's kingdom.
So it is that sometimes persons of Christian faith, in the name of God, support the use of violence. A minority view within Christian community has been the witness of those who take absolutely our Lord's commands to love peace and to not return violence with violence. The more pervasive view has been that sometimes we have to resort to violence to remove or reduce further violence. It is a difficult claim and our track record on the "SOMETIMES we have to resort to violence to remove violence is not good. Too many times "sometimes" has been most of the time and for mostly the wrong reasons.
It is one thing to make a POLITICAL judgement to use violence. But to make a THEOLOGICAL claim to the use of violence, the violence must be shown to be both justifiable and justified and EFFECTIVE to bring about the desired goal of a greater good for the greater number. We cannot resort to violence to take revenge or to make us feel better; it must have the desired effect of extending peace and justice.
Choosing to support violence for the sake of God's justice and peace is a choice that is never lightly made. In the patriotic and righteous anger of this moment, the choice seems clear and easy. I would submit it is not. For AS CHRISTIANS, we are not freed from the obligation to demonstrate very sound reasons for going against a simple and direct word of our Lord. Jesus did NOT say "Blessed are vengeful" Jesus did not say, "Blessed are the patriotic." Jesus did not say, "Blessed are the just war advocates." Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted…Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God." I do not claim a special revelation on this matter. I only claim that as persons of faith, the claims of our faith must come first. Before our politics, before our nation.
Yes, these are desperate times. Which leads us from the parable of Jesus back to Jeremiah. Is there a balm in Gilead? The presumed answer for Jeremiah was NO. His land was devastated, and he could see no light at the end of the tunnel, no hope for tomorrow.
Is there a balm in Gilead? For us, the presumed answer is YES. Despite all that we have gone through, all that we are going through, all that we WILL go through, the spiritual got it right: there IS a balm in Gilead.
In a sermon, Gerald Kennedy recounted the Greek legend about the woman who came to the River Styx to be ferried across to the region of departed spirits. Charon, the ferryman, reminded her that it was her privilege to drink of the waters of Lethe and forget the life she was leaving. She was thrilled with the idea. "At last I shall forget how I have suffered." "And you will forget how you have rejoiced," replied Charon. "Well, I shall also forget my failures," she said. "And your victories," Charon added. She tried to ignore him. "I will forget how I have been hated." "And how you have been loved." That was the decisive statement. She decided not to drink the water but retain her memories so that she might never forget that she had been loved. There is no greater disaster than forgetting that. (LA 9:4:16)
Friends: we cannot forget 911-01. Nor SHOULD we forget. We cannot forget the pain. And we cannot forgive the grace. It is grace that gives us life. It is grace that will bring us through these dark hours. The grace we are called to live by and to give to a broken and sinful world.
Now, may the Psalmist's ancient prayer be our prayer for today: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name's sake. AMEN.
R. Charles Grant, D.Min.
Bon Air Presbyterian Church - Richmond, Virginia
25th Ordinary Time - September 23, 2001