“All Things New”
Easter 5C
28 April 2013 8:00 a.m. Said and 10 a.m. Sung Mass
Easter 5C
28 April 2013 8:00 a.m. Said and 10 a.m. Sung Mass
Parish Church of Trinity, Ashland (Oregon)
God, take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.
Fifty years ago this year, on August 28,
1963, a group of demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on the National
Mall in what was called the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” They were demanding the passage of national
civil rights and voting right acts to end legal discrimination on the basis of
race or color. Fifty years ago today,
the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a young Baptist minister from Atlanta
advocating non-violent vigorous resistance to oppression, delivered one of the
great speeches of American political and social history.
In all of about 15 minutes King took up
great themes and rhetorical tropes: 100 years gone by since the Emancipation
Proclamation, and still no freedom; America’s default on the promissory note of
liberty it had signed in its Declaration of Independence; we will not be
satisfied until freedom is truly and authentically enjoyed by all; have hope
that suffering is redemptive; and “I have a dream today.”
I remember as a young boy watching the
speech on television and being deeply moved.
I had never before heard the preaching of the black Church. Even my dear father, who thought King was a
hypocrite and a Communist to boot, was moved by King’s vision of a country
where we all said, “let freedom ring.”
Today, 50 years on, we see progress. The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act
were passed. Explicit racial prejudice
is now generally, if not universally, condemned in our society, where it was
still a socially acceptable point of discussion in many quarters when King gave
the speech.
But fifty years on, we are still far,
far, from the dream Dr. King described, a dream where we all share equally in our common life, where we are all brothers and
sisters, not defined by external classifications.
Dr. King was one of the spiritual and
political leaders of the last 100 years who exerted profound influence to help their
people not through skillful management of force or manipulation of interest
group politics but through their self-sacrificing dedication to truth, to the
common heritage and values of all humanity, and their non-violent use of what
Mohandas K. Gandhi called Satyagraha—truth
force. These include Gandhi himself,
King, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, Aung San Suu Kyi, and H.H. the Dalai
Lama, among many, many others.
Thomas Merton, O.C.R., and H.H. the XIV Dalai Lama
People often have misunderstood the reasons
and rationale for non-violent resistance
to oppression. Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote the following:
It would be a serious mistake to regard … nonviolence simply as a novel tactic which is at once efficacious and even edifying, and which enables the sensitive person to participate in the struggles of the world without being dirtied with blood. Nonviolence is not simply a way of proving one’s point and getting what one wants without being involved in behavior that one considers ugly and evil.… Nonviolence is perhaps the most exacting of all forms of struggle, not only because it demands first of all that one be ready to suffer evil and even face the threat of death without violent retaliation, but because it excludes mere transient self-interest from its considerations. In a very real sense, those who practice nonviolent resistance must commit themselves not to the defense of their own interests or even those of a particular group: they must commit themselves to the defense of objective truth and right and … all … human beings. Their aim is then not simply to “prevail” or to prove that they are right and the adversary wrong, or to make the adversary give in and yield what is demanded of him.…[N]onviolence is not built on a presupposed division, but on the basic unity of humankind. It is not out for the conversion of the wicked to the ideas of the good, but for healing and reconciliation. ("Blessed are the Meek: The Roots of Christian Non-Violence," 1967)
King’s “I have a Dream” vision is one
of united humanity, not divided races. It is a world where all are reconciled rather than one where one
group, previously oppressed, has simply prevailed, turned the tables, and
become oppressors in turn.
Today’s story from Acts tells of the
breaking down of barriers, the overcoming of human divisions, and the
sacrificial, transforming, love that comes from our faith. The inclusion of the Gentiles is a great
theme of the Book of Acts, and is seen there as the direct consequence of
Jesus’ resurrection. It is very
appropriate on this anniversary.
Peter has included the Gentiles because
of his experience of God—despite everything he knows about clean and unclean,
proper and improper, holy and profane from the Holy Scriptures of his day. This causes people in the Church to question
him. He intentionally goes to them,
takes time and explains, “step by step.”
He simply says what has happened to him to help him change his mind from
where he once was and where those criticizing him still are. He is careful to include the details of the
dream vision: “Lord, I can’t eat that stuff because it’s against your commandments and I’ve tried since I was little to keep
them. I can’t eat it because it’s disgusting.” “But then the voice of God said, ‘call
nothing unclean that I have made clean and nothing profane that I have made
holy.’” And Peter then actually gets to
know some of these believing Gentiles and sees in their lives the signs that God has been active in their lives,
just as much as in the lives of Jewish believers. This for him is the sign that God has indeed
made these Gentiles holy, without benefit of following the Scriptural Law that
Peter knows.
The Resurrection of Jesus changed the
world for his followers. All things were
made new. Jesus in his life had proclaimed
the arrival of God’s Reign; God raising Jesus from the dead showed that the
Reign had indeed come. As so we have to live
as if the Reign of God is already here.
This includes God’s great banquet for all peoples at the end of time. This includes all people being priests and
prophets. Jesus’ disciples re-evaluated
everything in light of the Resurrection. Their contemplation of Beauty that raises
the dead made them quickly see the universality of God’s grace, and the
impermanence of human barriers.
“Call nothing profane that I have made
holy!” “Call nothing unclean that I have
made clean!” “All things are being made
new!”
If we are to follow God’s call, we must
stand ready to witness to the truth of God’s action in our lives and the lives
of others, especially those different from us.
With Peter, we must reach out and get to know the unfamiliar. We must “go” with them and learn to see the
hand of God in their lives. Then we must
go to those who criticize, and explain, “step by step,” what has led us to see
God’s hand at work in our fellow human beings.
The issue of the full inclusion of
first women as priests and bishops and then gays and lesbians fully in the common and sacramental life of
the Episcopal Church has caused a lot of controversy in the Church and the
Anglican Communion in the last 20 years.
Like the devout Jewish Christians in today’s story, some have criticized
inclusion, pointed to Scripture (at least Scripture as they understand it, and
asked how we can do such a thing.
All things made new! The Gospel calls
us to break these barriers too. In
Christ, there is no white or black, slave or free, male or female, Jew or
Gentile, or gay or straight. Our reading
of Holy Scripture, our reflection on tradition, and our reason tells us that we
are seeing clear evidence of God intending women to be church leaders, and
redeeming, transforming grace at work in the lives of Gay, Lesbian, and transgender people of
faith. This has led us to discern, to be
led by the Spirit if you will, that we must open these ministries and
sacraments to all, including people previously marginalized and condemned due
to impediment of gender or what had been seen as the moral failing and disorder
of same sex attraction and love. Call
nothing profane that God has declared holy!
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead
is what calls us, just as it did Peter.
Many members of this congregation over the years have been great examples of working for the ordination and episcopal consecration of women, and full inclusion in the sacraments and life of the Church of Gays, Lesbians, and transgendered persons. These Trinitarians are models for us all.
All the blessings of full inclusion have been obvious, not just for those now newly included, but for us all, who have been graced by the gifts and contributions they make in our common life.
Many members of this congregation over the years have been great examples of working for the ordination and episcopal consecration of women, and full inclusion in the sacraments and life of the Church of Gays, Lesbians, and transgendered persons. These Trinitarians are models for us all.
All the blessings of full inclusion have been obvious, not just for those now newly included, but for us all, who have been graced by the gifts and contributions they make in our common life.
I know that we often operate by the
rule: to get along, don’t talk religion or politics with people, especially if
they disagree with you. But far from
avoiding the difficult conversations with those who question or disagree with
us here, we need to learn to commend the faith that is in us. Like Peter, we need to go to them, and explain
these things step-by-step. And we need
to do this because we see in them also the children of God. Truth force dictates that we may learn new
things from them as well, and we must be open to this if we are truly to
practice contemplation and satyagraha.
Sometime today or tomorrow, I want us
all to sit down and read, watch, or listen to Dr. King’s “I have a dream”
speech. Listen to it, and think of what
your dream is today. Think about how the
resurrection makes all things new and breaks down all barriers. Think about the barriers that we still need
to break down. Think about finding God
in your opponents.
Here are links to a video and the
text of Dr. King's speech:
In the name of Christ, Amen.
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