Hola! I
bring you greetings from the Iglesia
Presbiteriana Reformada
en Cuba at Union de Reyes y Sabanilla. As I mentioned this morning
I told both of these congregations that I was not there as a missionary. I was
there for missionary training. I say this, in part, because our Presbytery has
the longest standing relationship of any presbytery in the PC(USA) with the
Presbytery of Matanzas (over 30 years), and it would be foolish to think of our
relationship as anything less than mutual partners proclaiming Christ together.
I must
admit that even though I had that in mind from the beginning, I had no idea
what I would actually experience once I got there. I have grown up during the
time of the embargo. I do not know what it was like to live under the very real
nuclear threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Likewise I do not know what it was
like to live in a country tossed between an oppressive dictator backed by the
United States and violent guerrilla warriors like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
I guess
that I was somewhat anticipating a scene like Paul encountered in Athens – a
people who were aware of God’s presence yet still open and seeking. I suppose
that is true, in as much as it is true for any of us. The Cuban churches we
visited and the people we met were very different from us in many ways –
language, culture, economics – yet many of their struggles are the same. The
Presbyterian congregations are facing generational issues. They are one voice
among many, and some fear that the more conservative and fundamentalist
churches are gaining ground. Meanwhile the Roman Catholic Church remains in the
majority. Sound familiar?
I think
that was part of what motivated a question that was asked when we visited the
seminary in Matanzas. We had a Q & A with some students, faculty, and our
PC(USA) Mission Co-worker (the first stationed in Cuba in quite a while). One
of our group members asked, “What is the Presbyterian Church doing to
differentiate itself?” In other words, she wanted to know what their unique
witness was like.
A few
of them spoke about “Mission Congregations” that are a lot like our “New
Worshiping Communities.” Darrel [Dar-heel] spoke up (he was my translator when
I preached) and said that he felt that what made them unique was not only that
the Cuban Presbyterians were more accepting of others – regardless of race,
gender, or sexual orientation – but it was also the fact that they believed
that the church is not separate from the community. The church is not a place
where programs involve certain people who are members of the church. The church
is a community of believers who are intimately involved in the lives of the
people who live in the same area as the church.
As I
reflect on these conversations I feel a lot less like Paul and a lot more like
an Athenian. I hear these words as a call to repentance. I don’t mean to say
that I’m a horrible person or that you are. Paul’s call to repentance to the
Greeks was not the same as Peter’s call to the Jews. Peter was acusational.
Paul was offering his call to repentance as a corrective.
He was
saying, “Look, I can see that you guys love God, but you just aren’t quite
getting this whole worship thing right. God doesn’t need your offering to be
God. A statue or a plaque or even a temple really doesn’t do much for God. What
really matters is that you stop trying to make God in your image, and you start
worshiping God with your lives.”
The
good news in all of this is that it’s not all up to us alone. The church in
Cuba is not alone, even though their partners in the US have not been with them
in recent years. The church in the US is not alone, even though we often feel
divided and scattered. For we are a people who live after the resurrection of
Jesus. We are a people who live after the Spirit of Truth was revealed. We are
a people who know that we can appeal to God for a good conscience.
Let me
unpack those bags a little bit, because it’s possible that I may have brought
in some contraband. First off is this resurrection thing. That’s a pretty
central claim to our faith, but for some it has become like the argument of a
politician who tells us it’s true because he or she says that it is true. While
there is some aspect of the resurrection of Jesus that we have to leave at
“either you believe it or you don’t,” what’s really at stake here is not some
metaphysical magic trick.
What’s
at stake is God’s sovereignty. What’s at stake is our acceptance of the power
and presence of God in our midst. Can there be a God who is both beyond our
concept of reality and involved in our lives? Can healing and restoration
happen at the hand of God, and can life have any meaning when it doesn’t? Yes!
Absolutely! We see it all the time in the recovery from addiction, in the
remission of cancer, and in the faith that comforts us when these struggles are
lost.
That’s
why the resurrection matters. It matters because sometimes words like “renewed”
or “restored” just aren’t enough. It matters because we need to know that there
is something we are moving toward that is more transformative than anything
that we can do on our own.
And
according to Jesus in his final words to his disciples, it matters because it
was through his death and resurrection that his spirit, the Spirit of Truth,
the Spirit of God might be revealed to everyone as an Advocate – a comforter,
an encourager, an intercessor on our behalf.
It’s
not that God was never active before, but it is through the lens of the
resurrection that we can see what God is moving us toward. And even though it’s
nice to know where we are heading, we can all agree that there are times when
we want the comfort and power of God to be with us here and now. We want a God
that will help us, defend us, or at least make the pain or the injustice stop.
And it is in those times that we must remember that Jesus promised not to leave
us alone. We are not orphaned. ‘For we too are his offspring.’
I truly
felt such a connection to God in Cuba. I felt God’s presence through our hosts,
our group, and the witness and ministry of the Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada en Cuba –
especially when I was separated from the group to preach in Union de Reyes –
but I also had another, more immediate, experience over the weekend. Yesterday
I was called by a minister in the presbytery because the adult child of a
member of his congregation was in a car wreck and had been medevaced to Lafayette General.
When I
arrived I was welcomed by the family and was received with joy in the way that
Pastors often are in hospitals. As we visited and prayed, I asked for God’s
presence to be known through healing and peace in that room. Just as I said these
words the nurse was entering quietly and reverently. It occurred to me that he
was the one offering healing and peace, and that God was very present indeed.
As I
reflected on all these things it occurred to me that no matter how good and
faithful I try to be, I cannot truly see God’s activity; I cannot truly defend
my belief in a God of grace and mercy and love; I cannot reveal the love of God
to anyone, unless I am also recognizing my need for a clear conscience.
I don’t
mean that I am constantly feeling guilty or responsible for someone else’s
sorrows. What I mean is that whether I am in Cuba or Lafayette General or First
Presbyterian Church, the more I look for God’s activity in someone else the
more likely someone else is to see it in me. The more often I seek God’s vision
of things, the more likely I am to share it.
And
that’s why we come together and confess our sins and the sinfulness of the
world every Sunday. That’s why we spend the rest of the week demonstrating the
love that world won’t see unless you and I show it to them. For in that way,
each of us has a unique witness – even as we work together as a congregation to
demonstrate love and acceptance, and yes, the active, restorative and
redemptive Spirit of God in our midst!
May God
continue to take us into hospitals and hotels, shelters and bars, coffee shops
and kitchen tables where we might each in our own way experience the presence
of God, even as we seek to share it. Amen.
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