Genesis
9:8-17 1 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 1:9-15
If you had a time machine, where would you go? Who would you
hope to meet? What event would you want to see for yourself?
My answer changes depending on when and where I am asked – which
is probably true for most of us – but I think today I might like to hear Dr.
King’s “I Have A Dream” speech first hand. I might like to see what it was like
to have so many people in our nation mobilized under the idea that our human
dignity is at stake.
I say that because I think that we often forget that the only
reason we have a “Black History” month is because we have had years and years
of white history. Sure, people of color have been included in our history, but
their significance and role has never been acknowledged to its full extent. Likewise,
we also forget that the Civil Rights movement was not just for people of color
to have rights, but for all of us to recognize our basic humanity in one
another.
But
maybe – in light of our readings – it’s more than that. Maybe it’s about
recognizing the divinity in one another, in fact in all of creation.
After
the flood, God spoke to Noah about God’s relationship with all of creation.
Essentially God agrees that genocide (creationocide?) is not something to do
again. God sets God’s bow – the rainbow, God’s weapon of mass destruction – in
the clouds as a reminder not to use it anymore.
We
can only assume that God’s expectations for us in this covenant remain the same
as they were before – that we will be stewards of the earth. But this time
there is something different about God’s relationship with creation. None of
it, from the smallest insect to the greatest beasts of land and sea, will be
managed by threat from God. All of it will be managed by grace and mercy and
inclusivity and love. That doesn’t mean that there are no consequences. It
simply means that God will not destroy what God has made, because God gave up
God’s bow.
This
may sound inconsequential to you. This is the One who spoke the universe into
being. Setting aside a bow doesn’t really limit God, right? Well, no. But
that’s not the point.
The
point, according to Wil Gafney – the Associate Professor of
Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas – is that
God is radically and unequivocally placing a love for “all y’all” at the base
of God’s relationship with humanity – and indeed, all of creation.
Certainly,
we will see this relationship expressed through a particular people, but (in
her words) “The covenant between God and all flesh is between God and every
girl, woman, boy, man, and intersex person, every lesbian, gay man, bisexual
and transgender person, every atheist, agnostic and religious person, every
Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan and pagan person, every person
of ability and perceived limitations, every person of any nationality,
ethnicity or racial construction or category, and even includes those who defy
and explode categories. For the religious reader, particularly … liberation
seeking readers, this radical inclusivity is part of what makes the religious
texts of ancient Israel scripture for so many peoples beyond
their culture, religion and borders.”
Essentially,
what she is reminding us is that God’s love is on God’s terms – not on ours.
And in that same way of thinking – God’s love is on God’s terms – we are told
that the waters of the flood prefigured our baptism.
Now, I
have to say that is a slippery slope. I can remember after Katrina when a
certain public figure referred to the flooding of the ninth ward as “flushing a
toilet.” It happens in every tragedy. Someone wanting to feel good about
themselves will demonize the poor or justify their own position in order to
feel superior.
I
will say that I heard less of that in the flood of 2016, but that’s because it
was only in the national news cycle for about 30 days. Yet here we are in 2018,
still cleaning up. Of course, we are assisting a pretty broad region. Most of
the homes of the people we are helping were already in need of help before the
flood. Our worksite partner, Rebuilding Together Acadiana, already serves those
who are handicapped and elderly and without insurance, and they were the ones
hardest hit by the storm.
I
wish that I could say that this flood had a cleansing impact to the land, but I
can’t. What I can tell you is that it has had a cleansing impact on the hearts
and minds of over 180 individuals from 14 congregations in 10 different states!
A story about love and mercy following a flood has gone out with each person,
and in some small way the Kingdom of God has been present in this place and in
their lives.
And so, we wear our blue Presbyterian Disaster Assistance T-shirts
today because we also want to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near! That
is the central claim of Jesus throughout the Gospel of Mark, but it is preceded
by one particular command that puts us in the right place to experience it –
repent.
Funny thing is, this is the same word that kicks off Advent.
Funnier still (at least to me), is that I can hardly think of this word without
thinking of two things. The first is the expectation that repentance means
feeling bad for not being faithful enough to God, or even worse – for not being
religious enough. The second is Indiana Jones.
If you don’t know the scene, I’ll spoil it. He’s after the Holy
Grail, and he’s in a tomb filled with booby traps. Each trap has a clue, and
one is about being penitent. Just as he begins to mumble about what penitence
means, he ducks down subserviently and is barely missed by a giant blade –
which he cleverly disables and no longer needs to be “penitent”.
Thing is, neither of these are right. Repentance, or penitence, is
not about feeling bad or being subservient. Neither is it about figuring out
the problem of personal limitation and going beyond on your own merits. It’s
about centering your mind and your heart on God and letting your actions flow
from that place.
This is not an easy thing to do, and while I think that it is
something that should be part of our everyday lives of faith, I think it is
good and right to have a time of year that expects it of us. It may be that
centering your heart and mind on the reality of God and the concept of a love that
liberates and renews your spirit may require you to let go of some things.
Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters do it as a matter of
practice. That’s not a bad thing, but what God truly wants is that we recognize
the patterns of behavior, the beliefs and values, the expectations we place on
others, and the things that become centers of value and meaning – and we truly
let go, not just for a season but for good – of those things that keep us from
living as a part of God’s Kingdom.
This may leave you feeling a bit like you are shoved out into the
wilderness – “thrown” is actually a more literal translation here: Jesus was
“thrown out into the wilderness” by the Holy Spirit – where there is both
temptation and blessing.
The beautiful thing is that you are not alone. You are not alone
in your anger or your grief over the violence that grips our world. You are not
alone in your fear over the increasing frequency of mass shootings in our
nation. You are not alone in feeling that the killing of innocent and
vulnerable creatures is nothing short of evil. And as we reorient our lives
around the love of God, there is no better time to consider the presence of
evil in the world.
And that’s what it all comes down to, my friends. For in the words
of Dr. King, “[A
person] who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as [a person] who helps to
perpetrate it. [A
person] who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating
with it.”
And so,
the opportunity of Lent – the opportunity of repentance – is to ask ourselves
what we are participating in and how we plan to respond to the love and mercy
of God. For the Kingdom has come near! It may be that we are called to lay down
arms, or whatever distracts us from seeing God in one another, in order to see those,
we turn away from. It may be that we need to recruit those who the world
rejects. It may be that we need to throw our bodies in front of children by
targeting those who are so full of self-loathing that they have forgotten their
own humanity and reminding them that they, too, are beloved by God.
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