Carla Bailey, Senior Pastor
October 5, 2008
For months now, I have been thinking about four sermons I am preaching, all under the heading Election Reflections. Now that the month of October has arrived, and the election is right around the corner, you may all be feeling election reflection fatigue and I certainly couldn’t blame you if the last thing you are interested in hearing is any more election reflections. I promise you I won’t talk about the debates or whether God inclines more favorably toward democrats or republicans, or a time table for withdrawing troops or the billion (or is it trillion) dollar bailout plan. I won’t say anything about Wall Street or Main Street, hockey moms or working class roots, elitism or the bridge to nowhere. It’s all beginning to sound a little silly and shallow and surrealistic – a bit like the melting clocks in a Salvador Dali painting, and there are some very serious things happening in the world that will be influenced in profound ways by our next president. So, tune out if you’re word weary. There are some things I think we should be pondering, not in a secular way or a partisan way, but through the lenses of belief in God and discipleship to Jesus Christ. That is, after all, why we’re here this morning – because we’re Christians and we believe that God has a will for human life, and that following Jesus is not as capricious as choosing matching socks or entrees off a menu.
Today is World Communion Sunday, the first Sunday in October, an occasion established by the World Council of Churches soon after World War II as a day when Christians the world around might all participate in the communion meal, share the sacrament, even though denominational loyalties and many miles divide us. It was an attempt to express our solidarity as Christians, in spite of the complicated national and international relationships between us. Today, not many Christian denominations observe World Communion Sunday. Over the years it has lost some of its powerful message of Christian unity. Christianity’s place in the religious landscape is more complicated than it once was and Christian unity has taken its place on the shelf alongside other myths of the 1950’s.
The world of nations and tribes, loyalties and religious dogmas has, at one and the same time, become more particular and more unified. There is a global economy, we all know that, and there are more divisions between nations than ever before. Is there only one Superpower any more and if there still is, is it the United States? How is a superpower defined – by its military strength? economic stability? the care of its citizens’ health and well-being? Perhaps a nation’s greatness is defined by its moral rectitude, its superior math scores, how it has disciplined its passion for freedom into respect for diversity. Or is superpower status granted to those nations who have God’s ear?
The central shaping principle for Judaism, the foundation upon which our Christian faith is based, is to have been chosen by God to be a nation, a particular expression of God’s favor and delight. In every way save but for the profound responsibility that accompanies it, the United States has appropriated that understanding of its divinely granted privileged status. We are exceptional. We are the greatest nation on earth. Even our baseball contests annually conclude with a “world series”. We think we have moral authority over all the other nations of the world, moral authority because we believe we are God’s chosen nation. It was our divine right to transplant our white-skinned, European roots into this fertile land where tribes and nations already lived. It was our divine right to purchase, or take more and more land. When we needed laborers for our land, we stole them from Africa.
Of course, ancient Israel had to contend with something that we’ve managed to avoid in our nation – prophets. Israel’s prophets berated Israel’s rulers, demanded that moral responsibility accompany moral authority and spoke for God of justice, repentance, judgment. Israel’s rituals are disdained by God, said the prophets. Israel has abandoned its responsibility for its most vulnerable citizens, said the prophets. Israel has prostituted itself, said the prophets. Israel has lost its way, said the prophets.
As Christians, we believe that the succession of prophets culminated in Jesus, the perfecter and pioneer of our faith. Jesus was just as harsh as the prophets who preceded him, just as anguished by the individual suffering he saw and sought to heal. Jesus did not speak of national pride and privilege but of responsibility, humility, and repentance.
Responsibility, humility, and repentance – three words not often heard in our national discourse this election season – particularly repentance. I guess its not likely to hear a word like repentance if you believe you’ve done nothing wrong. I wonder how long a national conversation of confession and repentance would last.
We are a nation of tremendous assets – geniuses and scoundrels - and sometimes its difficult to distinguish between the two. That would be ok, in fact kind of interesting, if the scoundrels wouldn’t feel quite so free to assume that the gifts are God-given and therefore, may be protected by any means necessary. We are a nation of tremendous physical assets – water, fields of grain, soaring mountains, forests. Do they belong to us? We are a nation of tremendous possibility – educationally certainly, and economically? Well, more or less. What accompanies possibility?
Well, that’s enough election reflection for today. Next week I’m going to think about gender and race. Oh, by the way, do you wonder what the 6 and 3/4% represents? It’s the relative size of our land mass in the world. Kind of small for the conceit that sometimes seems to characterize our American self-perception. No wonder we need to think of God possessively. How else could we justify our actions in the world? Amen.