Second Sunday of Advent, December 9, 2018, "We are worthy. We are gifted. We are forgiven"

Advent 2 OL BFC 2018

Isiah 57:14-21; Luke 1:68-79

December 9, 2018

        Over time, I believe Christianity developed an unhealthy, primary focus on sin and the forgiveness of sin.  I think it happened very naturally as people glossed the Biblical text.  Some of that conversation about sin and forgiveness of sin is there.  It is a strong and beautiful, personal and communal part of Jewish tradition, and I want to talk about that.  But the Christian Church became obsessive and developed sin and forgiveness as a way to control people when the church became a part of the imperial narrative.  The Church then used that obsession to control and box the Spirit of God when that Spirit threatened to make things much more chaotic and democratic.  (In hoity-toity British accent)  “Huff, huff, huff, we need order here!” 

          It became a matter of orthodoxy.  Sin and forgiveness became the

central thing we observed in worship.  And, as the church reflected wider culture and became unable to admit its own failings, sin became more and more about individual, privatized moral failings found “out there.”  In other words, “My sin will never be worse than yours or theirs!”

          In contrast to modern day individualism, ancient peoples made sense of their lives and identities through community and nation.  They could not imagine an identity as separate from family, community, and nation.  When the prophet Isaiah tells the people that their sins of violence and injustice shall return to them, as a consequence of their actions, the whole community is implicated, the whole nation must beg for forgiveness.  “Repent, turn from your sins,” the prophet asks, “and you shall be forgiven.  Do not turn from your sins, and your fate will be like any other imperial project—destined for devastation and destruction.  As the Jewish people enter into the Babylon Exile, one after another the prophets tell the people that their suffering is a result of their sin.  The prophet Isaiah believes that God is using the Babylonian Empire as a rod to punish the Jewish people.

          With the Jewish God understood as All-Powerful, this became tautological theology.  Not only are we punished for our sins.  But also, if we are suffering, then we surely have sinned.  If we are suffering, if we are poor and occupied and oppressed by an imperial power, this can only be by the will of God.  We must have broken covenant.  Our suffering is a sure sign of our sinfulness.  For we reap what we sow. 

          But that tautological theology becomes much more nuanced and refined as the Babylonian Exile stretches out for decades.  The book of Job, asking why the innocent suffer, challenges the notion that it is only the sinful who experience suffering and pain.  Job’s friends, who were at one time his allies, get sick of Job’s complaining and lamenting and begin to tell him off, assuming he must have done something so terribly wrong to have his wealth taken, his children die, and his good health disappear.  They believe they stand for God over and against Job’s complaint.  But God turns on Job’s friends and tells them they have know idea what they are talking about. 

          Even with God attempting to correct Job’s friends as a part of our faith story, I would argue that the primary narrative is still that we, as people, suffer because we sin and we are flawed.  If we are dispossessed, chronically ill, or struggling to make it, we are that way, so the story goes because God, on the throne, still large and in charge, is punishing us for our sin.  So the poor, the marginalized, the diseased fear God. We are not sure we want God to show up or to offer God’s presence because God seems to be forever mad at us. 

At the first church I served, young girl, Tracy Renner, had stopped coming to youth group and had dropped out of contact with the church.  When her mom brought Tracy to me to share that she had attempted suicide, I wondered what was up.  Her mom told me Tracy had gone through a series of events where she had almost lost her life.  One time she had been flipped off her bike.  Another time she fell down a flight of stairs.  Finally, she had almost been hit by a car.  I asked if these events had all occurred before Tracy had attempted suicide.  Tracy shook her head “yes” but would not make eye contact with me.  I asked her, “Tracy, do you think God wants you dead?”  She burst into tears.  Yes.  Yes, she did. How else to explain, the events she had gone through and an all-powerful God?  If God was in charge, then why was she being targeted?  Why not just do it herself?

          That tautological theology is critical for understanding what the Jewish people were going through at the time of Jesus.  The Jewish people are once again occupied and oppressed.  Therefore, we must be sinful.  We must have turned from God.  Why would we call upon God when all we might do is draw God’s attention to us and bring more devastation and destruction? 

          Jesus spends his time forgiving people of their sins so that the poor and dispossessed around him know that God is not against them but for them.   Shepherds are afraid of angels.  People who greet Jesus, who recognize God in him, tentatively approach him seeking healing saying, “O Jesus, have mercy on me and help me, for I am a sinner.”  The Jewish people had to know they were forgiven, that their tremendous suffering and death at the hands of Rome, was not as a result of some moral ineptitude on their part. 

          Jesus had to be about forgiving sins first so that people knew that the grace of God abides and that they could approach God, see God once again walking with them.  If it is not God who is causing or wants our disease, oppression, and poverty, then bowed heads lift to ask if God might want an end to the Roman occupation.  Unfortunately, Christianity took something out of that sin and forgiveness particularity and generalized it as a theme with the Church.   With the church institution in sole possession of the ability to forgive, forgiveness became a racket for the Christian Church.   That racket led to things like the Protestant Reformation, began schools of thought like the Enlightenment to respond to its inadequacies, and came under heavy criticism from literary giants like Albert Camus in The Plague. 

          When we are our best selves we know that pain and suffering in an individual, community, and nation is not a sign that they are sinful.  We know that terrible childhood cancers do not select the children who are the worst sinners.  We know that devastating car accidents happen as tragedies to families and friends—not because they are God’s enemies.  We know that bad things, horrific things, evil things happen to good and moral and right and just people. 

          Jesus actively trashes the tautological theology in an effort to upset the apple cart.  He forgives sins (outside the religious elite’s economic chokehold at the Temple in Jerusalem) so people know they are worthy to be healed.  He tells his disciples that a tower fell on Gentiles not because they were any worse people but because it was a tragedy. 

          The call of Advent is to prepare.  Pre-pare.  Pre--get ready.  Pare-by trimming the excess fat off to walk this difficult and long journey.  We will need to be lean and mean to make this journey.  For though the powers and principalities will try to tell us we are not worthy and that we are not entitled to join in the decision-making as voters, as citizens, as neighbors, we are worthy!  They tell us we do not understand the finances or don’t have the expertise.  But hear this sisters and brothers, siblings and cousins, when we come together in community, we are not only worthy but a people of rich and diverse gifts.  We were forgiven a long time ago by a God who is always extending grace.  Long has God offered grace, long has God forgiven, long before Jesus.  God and God in Christ have been looking for collaborators to stitch and piece together a path to peace. 

          The songs of Mary and Zechariah remind us that Jesus’s arrival is a politically subversive event.  God is seeking collaborators and finds collaboration with Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John the Baptist to say that the sin is identifying ourselves as Roman subjects rather than as the Beloved Children of God.  In contrast to some ancient songs which herald such reversals, however, these songs seem to suggest that the reversals will benefit those thrown off their thrones, the mighty who gorge themselves on arrogance and violence.  This is what Dr. King tried to tell us.  Even more so, Dr. King said, it is white people who need to be redeemed and rescued from the scourge of racism. 

          We are worthy.  We are gifted.  We are forgiven.  God is seeking collaborators.  We are forgiven. Jesus is actively seeking disciples.  Stop sitting mired within your own personal hell of sins and join hands with others, join hands with God.

          Here is where the tautological theology gets really nasty though.  Too often we are willing to see ourselves as worthy gifted, and forgiven, but we turn to people who are not like us to see them as sinful.  It is an imperial lie which allows us to turn to a whole group of people, “Hmmm, they just don’t want to take responsibility.  All they do is cause trouble.  If they only had the cultural bent towards family and hard work.  Because they suffer, they must be morally reprehensible.  Hurricanes come because of the gay agenda.  African American men are absentee parents.  Native people need to take on more personal responsibility.  Immigrants are murderers and rapists.” 

Part of our preparing as colleagues with God is to ask what we are getting ready to trim the fat for?  Because what we prepare for, orient ourselves for, matters for what we receive.  When we don’t actively seek to learn something new or to be surprised by relationships, all we receive is information that fits into old boxes. 

Last week was quite a bit of chaos as we did the Hanging of the Greens last week in worship.  I can get too often hooked into how well worship goes and not see courageous things happening in front of my eyes. I was grateful last week that as we sat down for our potluck, Barbara Gunn broke off from the tables to eat lunch with one of our homeless friends on the pews along the wall.  I stopped worrying about worship and gave thanks for the courage in this congregation.  Barbara’s actions gave me the courage to do the something similar and go to a table with one of our regular homeless worship attenders.  He shared his concern about two guys who approached me for funds last week at church.  He wanted to protect the church from getting ripped off. 

What are we preparing for.this Advent season?  Because, you know, you are forgiven. And you are worthy.  And we, as a community, have this rich tapestry of gifts.  That was long since established.  But what God is seeking . . . ?  What God is seeking are colleagues to stitch and piece together the way to peace.  Amen.