Being Gifts of Mercy and Compassion

Introduction:

The very first paper I wrote in seminary was a reflection on these verses I am about to read to you from the Prophet Amos. Let me read you the passage first and then tell you a little of what I discovered.

Read Amos 8:11-12

When I first read these verses many years ago, my initial reaction was, “Why do I need to research this passage and write a paper?” What it is saying seems pretty straightforward. Amos is sharing about a time in Northern Israel’s future where they will experience the loss of the Word of God. He likens it to a famine and a drought. The people will not have the very basic spiritual sustenance that brings and provides and sustains life itself. And everyone knows that the word of God is the Bible, or at least for the Israelites the Old Testament. So somehow, they will loose access to their scriptures. What I learned is Amos is prophesying before most if not all of the Old Testament is even written. He preaches in the 8^th century B.C. so the Jewish scriptures are still mostly oral tradition. Secondly, I learned that the phrase word of God is actually a name given to the prophets. The prophets were the word of God to the people, as God would speak to them in visions and dreams, and then they were to share what God had shown them. So what Amos is saying here is, “There will come a time where God will no longer send the prophets to you, and you will no longer know the will of God in your lives. You will feel so lost, so alone with no direction and guidance from God that you will search everywhere for a word from God, but you will not find my prophets anywhere to guide you.

The concept of “Word,” biblically, is so much more than just a few letters on a page for us to read. In the Gospel of John, the very first sentence reads, “In the beginning was the “logos,” the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . .And all things came into being through him.” Then a few verses later we read, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The word of God in scripture is a creative force that brings about new life and new creations. In Genesis we read, “God said, “Let there be light and there was.” God said or God spoke the word,s “Let us make human kind in our image, and God created humankind, male and female.” The word is a creative force in the world. Jesus as the Word in our midst comes so we may be born again, born anew, and become new creations and live as those who are created in the image of God and know the best of who we are and who we were created to be.

God, in scripture, is always sharing a creative word, a transforming word with the hope that it will help us to realize and live out of the best we can be, experiencing the gift of life in it’s fullest. This was and is the role of the prophet. To call people to the hope of God. And so when the people cannot find the prophet, the word of God, they have lost the gift of God’s creative and creating word in their midst.

So what does it mean when we say every week after the scripture readings, “The word of God for the people of God?” It is more than just an acknowledgment that we have read a passage from the Bible. It is an acknowledgment that we have received the creative, transforming hope of God. And your reply of “Thanks be to God,” is an acknowledgment that God is still with us, still creating and seeking to make life the hope and dream God always intended it to be for us.

So “The word of God for the people of God.” (People reply)

May the word that is from God and the Word that is God both bring us new life in Christ.

Sermon:

Dr. Leonard Sweet is one of the leading voices in the church today. He began his academic pursuits as a Wesleyan scholar, but has become what he calls a “Futurist.” His work today focuses on what we, as the church, need to be doing to stay and be relevant into the years and decades to come. He made a comment that has always stuck with me about living my faith as a Christian, and maybe is reflective of staying relevant. He said, “Jesus came into the world, the Word made flesh, to turn the world upside down, so it may be right side up.”

This thought describes for me the role and ministry of a prophet. I believe that the Prophets in the scriptures get a bad rap. They are often seen as people who are harsh, critical, condemning and judgmental. And as we read some of their words, we would probably agree. But Walter Brueggemann, one of today’s best known scholars of the Old Testament has a different take of the prophet. He says that prophets are those who express, “God’s imagination for life.” A prophet is aware of how life is at the moment, and also as God hopes it can be. Hence the words of conflict, “what is versus what is possible.” It is the definition for hope. So Prophets are about expressing the hope of God for us and our lives. Prophets are always trying to bring the creative word of God to the people of God to show them where life is broken, where life can be better and lived in the way God has hoped from the beginning of creation.

As I have shared the past couple of sermons, I see the cornerstone of our faith as God trying to show us how we can live together in wholeness and wellbeing for each other. It is what the word shalom means that we translate “peace” and what Jesus means by saying he came so the world might be saved. Salvation means living in harmony and wellbeing right now. But, Brueggemann says, we need to know that the best way to be prophetic is to bring an alternative reality, a picture of a new way of being in life together. But I would also ask, for it seems to me we have to provide opportunities and chances for people to experience a new reality, and know it is not something to fear. For it is only then they can embrace it.

For example, we as United Methodists have been fully ordaining women for over 50 years. Yet, I know Nancy has still been criticized for being in ministry. Several churches back, a parishioner was telling us about an incident that happened during worship. It was a week that Nancy was preaching and a young man was in the congregation. When she stood up to preach, the young man leaned over and asked, “You mean the other pastor, meaning me, is not preaching?” “No,” our parishioner said, “they take turns.” The young man said, “I’ll come back next week when the real pastor is preaching.” But those who have now experienced the quality ministry of our women clergy no longer find this an issue. No one would question Carol’s or Nancy’s call to ministry. The experience creates the new reality.

Sometimes we disagree on what we believe is the current reality, and it places us at odds with each other. So what do we do? Brueggemann implies that crusading and conflict and confrontation are not successful ways of being in prophetic ministry, but this picture of the new reality is what affectively leads us as community. Yet, it is difficult and why prophets are not embraced. Today, as Earth Day, or on our Christian calendar it is called, “The Festival of God’s Creation” provides a perfect example. Today is an important day, as it reminds us that we need to maintain a healthy creation to support a healthy life for us all. Last year, Nancy and I were away celebrating our 20^th anniversary and so I asked the Church and Society committee to lead the service. They shared their concerns about global warming. Some were moved to action and 8 or 9 people joined an environmental sub-group of Church and Society, and others were upset, as they believe humanity is not responsible for the warming or are not convinced that it is taking place at all. So what can we do when some feel we are facing this huge threat to life and others think it is an over-reaction? Is there a reality we can paint that allows us to join together and be the stewards of the earth that God calls us to be in the very first two chapters of the Bible?

I grew up in upstate New York, and I saw lakes die in the Adirondack mountains from Acid Rain. I lived near Buffalo, where there was a community called Love Canal that was built over a toxic waste dump and saw people needlessly dying of cancer, and people losing their dreams as they had to leave their homes behind. There are some of you here from Pa and know that rivers can catch on fire. The list can go on and on. The reality of tending to the health of our planet and living as responsible caretakers can surely be a reality we can work towards together. If we do this, then we have a common ground that allows us to be the best stewards we can be.

To be prophetic is hard, for you know God’s hopes for people and life, and then you look around and know we can do better. I shared with you last week a little about how honored I was to be able to participate in the “Days of Remembrance Celebration,” where we remembered the Holocaust. The theme this year was truly inspiring for me, as they remembered those whom they called the righteous. The righteous were those who literally laid their lives on the line for them, who risked their own lives to save Jewish lives. The word righteous biblically means to act beneficently toward another. The words righteousness and justice are often paired in the scriptures and in the prophets. One of the best known lines of prophecy is from Micah where he asks the question, “What does the Lord require of you, but to seek justice, love kindness or righteousness, and to walk humbly with God.” The reason they are often paired is where righteousness means to act beneficently toward another, justice means to act beneficently toward community and society and creation. In this celebration, to remember was to see clearly what the real possibilities of our humanity truly are. It reminded us of how bad, even evil people can be, but also served as a reminder of what we can become if we say yes to God, and live by God’s imagination. That we as people are so able to love others, we can lay our lives down for a friend. The words Jesus spoke to his disciples when he said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Prophets throughout scripture have not been about predicting the future, but about calling people back to their story. Amos, Micah, Hosea, Isaiah and the others are all about reminding people that they are people of Torah, people of the teachings or the word, God’s gift to help them know God’s imagination, God’s way of living life. Prophets remind us of our potential and our abilities in our personal and social relationships. We remember Jesus, his life, his teachings and how he modeled for us what it means to be fully human and fully alive. He was indeed God’s imagination in our midst. God gave us the word made flesh, so we could see and understand our potential.

As the church, we are called to be the prophets today. We are asked to understand our current realities of where we are not living the hope of God, and then we are called to be the word, the positive image of hope and possibility in our world today. We are asked to show people God’s imagination of who we can really be together and what life can be like in the kingdom of God. What is hard is I am not sure how many people believe anymore. Or if they do, why they are not running to and fro looking for God’s word?

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on April 25, 2010.