A Sermon for Jan. 29, 2023, 4th Sunday after the Epiphany
The Rev. Deborah Hawkins
‘Witnesses’
The biblical prophets do not predict the future, rather they witness to the present in a way that allows us to imagine a future different from the one we would predict. And they give voice to the yearning of a loving God to be in relationship with us, to walk side by side with us through a garden in the cool of the evening.
The Rabbi Abraham Heschel said, “The prophets never taught that God and history are one, or that whatever happens below reflects the will of God above. Their vision is of man defying God, and God seeking man to reconcile with Him.”
Our first reading comes to us from the prophet Micah. The scene is set up much like a court room. Not a courtroom like we would have today. In 8th century BCE Judah it is more likely the scene would be outside at the city gates and there the judge or the king would sit and adjudicate disputes between contending parties. It is a very public place.
Here we find the Lord, God Almighty, who has brought charges and is saying I have a dispute with you. That you is all of us. ‘I have a dispute with you and I call upon all of creation, from the highest mountains to the foundations of the earth to judge the truth of my charges against you. They are my witnesses.’ And the charge? That we have forgotten.
We have forgotten that when we could not save ourselves, God was there – bringing us out of Egypt, raising up leaders like Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam who help us through wilderness times. When those like King Balak of Moab would re-enslave and destroy us, the hearts and minds of others, like Balaam were opened and strengthened so they not only refused to be participants in violence but were embolden to speak against it even when doing so endangered themselves.
Everything from the crossing of the the Red Sea to the crossing of the Jordan river into the promised land, everything that we could not do and that God did do, everything that made us, we have forgotten.
God charges, “O my people what have I done to you. In what have I wearied you? Answer me!” It is the anguished cry of a broken heart.
Our response? “What do you want?”
We respond by trying to buy God off. Give him enough stuff and he will leave us alone. Pretty soon we will be saying we do not need God. We can get along fine all by ourselves.
This is a common human tragedy. We might be religious or not religious, from one tradition or another. Whatever our tradition or culture we can get to a point where we, whoever the we is at the moment, we are at the center. The earth, sun and stars revolve around us because there is nothing more or greater than us.
It works until it doesn’t, until we find there is something we must but can not do, a problem we can not fix, and then it is tragic.
I don’t know about you but I have found listening to the news the last few weeks especially heart breaking. It always is, but there is something about mass shootings. In case you are wondering that is why we are wearing orange stoles yet again this Sunday. They are a cry of pain.
There was an article in the New York Times this week by Jillian Peterson and James Densley who have studied 50 years of mass shootings. They have found a current of despair runs through the perpetrators.
Despairing people have no hope. They see no way to cross the rivers that block their paths. Barren places stretch forever. There is only danger in those they meet.
We can not fix others or force others to fix themselves somehow so we don’t have to deal with them. We can only be willing to allow God to transform us as we walk life’s path.
But I have to tell you I truly believe there is value in being witnesses to a memory that offers hope, hope found in a reconciling relationship with the Most High. Value in being part of a community that comes together week after week to remember, to study, to do. I believe the world does change as we change.
Micah tells us how to be those witnesses. He tells us what is required of us. Truthfully, we already know. In the deepest core of our being we have always known. We are created in the image and likeness of God and we know the pathos of God’s cry to us and we know the answer God is seeking in us.
To do justice. This is not a demand that we do more but a reminder to do what we do with greater attention to intentions.
To love kindness. Infuse the justice we do, and all our actions, with mercy, with kindness, with love that has no end.
When we live that way we can not help but realize there is no end to doing justice, no end to loving kindness. When we live that we we can not help but grow in humility, and in the knowledge and the love of God. Or as they say in AA in the knowledge that ‘I can’t, God can, I think I’ll let her.’ And as we might add, while we are at it, ‘we think we will cooperate with her.’
Friday was holocaust Remembrance Day. There was a prayer published on the internet by Steve Garnaas-Holmes, Unfolding Light for that day. It is a prayer that is good for more than just one day. It is a prayer about being a witness:
God of Mercy, open my eyes to your goodness.
Open my eyes to the other stuff, too.
Keep me aware of the injustice that is around me,
the signs of oppression, the victims of hate.
Keep me always mindful that I am capable of evil.
Help me be honest about my complicity in systems
that blame, exploit, dehumanize or exclude people.
Rather than say “Never again!”—as if it lies the future—
help me be aware of the present moment
and how I can stand today with the vulnerable,
and against injustice.
Each moment is a choice.
Be with me in my choosing.
It is in Christ’s name we pray.
There is good news in that choosing. The good news that God yearns for us to be in relationship with God and with each other. The good news that God yearns for us to join with God in imagining a future of love, hope, and peace. The good news that God yearns for us to join with all creation in witnessing to the love of God and, by so doing, be participants of the transformation of this hurting world.
Thanks be to God
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