October 25, 2009, Sermon by Rev. George Cushman

Biblically a “lament” is an expression, maybe even a cry to God by a person or community that sees that life is not what it should be. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, there is a sense of “lament” in the words, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We look around at the hurt, the lack of love and civility that often impacts our relationships and we know that our lives together are not what God wants for us. Jesus, he who saves, meaning he who makes whole, has come to show us and teach us what God’s hopes and dreams are for us in our relationships with each other. The passage I am about to read from Luke has been called the “Gospel in miniature.” Let’s hear what Jesus has to say about how life together would look in the kingdom.

Jesus says, “You see how the world acts so what credit or witness or new sense of life does this bring if we just live the same way?” We are to show a new way, a better way. One of the key teachings in this passage that helps us to achieve this new life is, “Be compassionate as God is compassionate.” Take time to understand those who are different than you, so you may love them in a way that brings healing to them. It is not about us, but about how we treat others.

Micah was a prophet. The ministry of a prophet was to receive a message from God about where the life of the people is disconnected from God and challenge them to change and come back to living by God’s Torah, the Law or the teachings of God. Just as the lament is an expression of a person or community experiencing their disconnection from God, a prophet echoed God’s message of where God expresses God’s concern about not being in relationship. This next passage is one of the best know teachings of the prophets.

Justice and kindness are the witness we are asked to share and live as followers of God. Justice, biblically, is a reflection of our love in the social realm, the communal realm of our lives. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel states, “God is concerned about injustice, not because rules or laws are being broken, but because another person’s life in being diminished.”

Church consultant Loren Meade says in his book, The Once and Future Church, that today’s church is just like the early church. What he means by this is that today, the church in America sits in the midst of the mission field. There are many directly outside our doors that have no idea of what the church is about, who we are as followers of Jesus, and what the good news is and can do for the living of their lives.

Today, we continue our sermon series, “Living The Five Promises (the promises we make when we join the church) as we reflect on our promise to witness to our faith. We can see how important this promise of witnessing is to our work as the church as we now recognize that the mission field for the church is right out those front doors where we live our daily lives and relationships.

The Apostle Paul, one of the founders of the early church, reminds us why a Christian’s witness then and now is so important. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one in whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” People’s salvation, an at-one-ment relationship with God through Jesus Christ, depends upon our sharing the good news with them. It is the focus of the first commitment on the witness card. Yet, this promise may be the hardest of the five promises for us to live. My doctoral focus was in evangelism. I remember one of my professors saying that, even though we know our witness is important, the reality is that approximately 20% of the people in any of your churches have the personalities to actually practice it.

One of my favorite definitions of preaching is, “Preaching is allowing others to overhear your prayers. It is letting others into your most intimate and personal beliefs, convictions and understandings of life.” I also believe this is exactly the definition for witnessing. It helps us to understand why this may, indeed, be the most difficult promise to make and keep. Many of us may be too shy or too unsure of ourselves to witness to our faith. That is not a judgment, but simply a recognition of who we are.

So what does it mean to all of us who make this promise? Do 80% of us not live it? Of course not. It means that we witness in ways which may be more comfortable and conducive to our personalities. I believe it was Saint Francis who said, “Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.” St Francis reminds us that faith is not a set of beliefs we must get people to accept, but is actually a way we live our lives. This is the intent of the second commitment on the witness card. We commit to living our lives in a way that shows unconditional love and acceptance of all God’s children. This commitment is reflected in Jesus challenge to us in Luke to, “Be compassionate as God is compassionate.” To be compassionate biblically means to enter into another person’s life so fully and completely that you feel their feelings in your guts, that you understand life from their perspective. As one scholar said, “Jesus’ good news is always specific. It is always good news to a person’s bad news.” We have to understand each other, know each other, before we can know how to be a witness of good news to another. I also believe that many of our life experiences prepare us to live this teaching of Jesus. For example, as a person who has lived through a divorce, I can bring many of the experiences, the hurts, the self-doubts I went through and have a good idea of what another person is feeling as they face a divorce.

I would like to do a song that I first heard by Peter, Paul and Mary, but was actually a country hit before they sang it. The words remind us that we have all had those moments in our lives where we have been hurt, where we have felt left out, unappreciated, where our own loveability was questioned. They are the understandings we all can bring to our relationships with each other that keep us from judging and help us to bring compassion and understanding. It is a song that reminds us of how we can either add to another’s pain or be a source of healing for them.

Our District Superintendent has told some of us that Prescott is the most diverse church in his District. We run the full gambit of theological and political beliefs. Yet, we make it work. For me, as we look at a world that continues to spiral toward being less and less civil towards those who think or act differently, our greatest witness may be our unity in our diversity. Love your enemies in Jesus’ teachings does not necessarily mean your arch foes, but also those who are different than you. Our love for each other, our prayers for each other may be our greatest witness to the community we serve.

The Prophet Micah asks, “What does the Lord require of you but to seek justice, love kindness and to walk humbly with God.” This is the last commitment on your card. I understand justice being an expression of social and communal love. As I read earlier, a prophet is one who expresses the lament of God that we are not fully living in the way that brings life to us all as God has hoped. Jesus also reminds us that prophets are never, or at least very seldom welcomed, for they challenge the status quo of the community’s life.

As many of you know, social justice issues are my passion in my ministry. It always amazes me the different ways God speaks to us. One of the most profound ways I have felt challenged by God is through a made for television movie. I have shared this story before, but I also believe it is a great illustration of what our role as people who witness to justice is about. I probably saw this movie some 30 years ago. It is about a woman’s factory football league. Women from different factories and businesses formed teams and started a league. The movie shows how they were made fun of, how they were ridiculed and even the butt of much anger from men and women as they stepped outside their conventional roles as women. At the end of the movie the factory of of the team focused on in the movie is sold and the new owner does not believe women should be playing football so he disbands the team. The closing scene of the movie shows the women who played quarterback for the team and one of her close male friends walking out of the factory and the woman lamenting that it was not fair that the owner should disband the team. “Why does he think he has the right to tell e what I can or cannot do,” she says to her friend. Her male friend says, “Hang in there, things will change someday and you’ll be able to play football again.” This is where it impacted me. She stopped and angrily responded, “How long would you have me wait? This is the only life I have.”

As Abraham Heschel said, “God is concerned about injustice because the life of a person is being diminished. Our prophetic witness is one that not only sees where the life of a person may be diminished, but also tries to share the urgency for change so they may know justice. “It is the only life I have, how long would you have me wait?” Every day of waiting for someone who seeks to live justly is one less day their lives have to live in and experience the kingdom of God.

Witness is indeed a part of our beacon of hope. Hope, the Apostle Paul tells us is seeing what is possible, but not yet realized. Through our words of good news, through our lives of faith and encouragement, through our commitment to all who are denied the opportunity to live their lives as a child of God, we commit ourselves this day to be a witness of the good news of Jesus Christ in all we do.

This next verse shows the transition from living our own experiences and using them in how we live our lives.

Living the Five Promises: Witness