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in search of civility

1/14/2018

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Kent M. Organ, Interim Pastor
Texts:  James 3:1-10; Matthew 5:21-24, 12:35-37

   American political discourse  has become increasingly coarse  and damaging  to “the dialogue that ought to be  at the essence of democracy.”  Scorn and derision have become “the common coin  of political argument.” This past year,  much of that has come  from the highest level of government.

    It was one thing  for  a Presidential candidate  to engage in ridicule and name calling. But it didn’t cease  after January 20. Critics were dubbed  “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer,” “Jeff the Flake,” “Liddle Bob Corker” and, of course, “Pocahontas.” Then there are also “Leakin’ James Comey,” “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd,” more recently “Sloppy Steve Bannon.” But most dangerous of all,  there is  “Little Rocket Man.” Contempt breeds contempt. And so, we now hear as retribution  words such as  “fool,”  “idiot,”  “unhinged,”  and “crazy.”

    Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once wrote  that “Our government  is the potent, the omnipresent  teacher. For good or for ill,  it teaches  the whole people  by example.” What are we being taught  in this  acrimonious time?

    Now, the acrimony didn’t begin  with the current Administration. Think of  the divisions and hostility  during  the Clinton, Bush, and Obama years. We wonder, where is all this heading  for us  as a people?  This  Martin Luther King Memorial weekend  is a propitious time to think about this – and, here in worship,  to do so  Biblically  and theologically. 

    * * * *
​

    Clearly, in a democratic society, we need to learn  how to deal with differences.  They are here to stay.  As our society becomes more pluralistic – racially, ethnically, religiously – the need for understanding and tolerance  increases.  In politics, in education, in economic spheres, even in the church,  issues will continue to be before us  to which we bring  different experiences and perspectives.  But the encounters  can be constructive; they need not be  destructive, barbarous.  Our ability to deal civilly  with one another  is crucial to the preservation  of community.

    What’s at issue  is not so much the substance of the debate,  but the manner in which we conduct it;  not the solutions to be reached, but the way in which we come to them.  I think the Christian understanding of the human condition  can make a contribution.  

    All of us, we believe, are made in the divine image;  all of us share a common humanity,  and have enormous  potential – which argues for respect.  Yet all of us are flawed – we see things from our own  limited frame of reference;  we act from  mixed  motives – and that argues for humility.  An attitude of respect toward others, and  of humility  about the correctness of our own position, would go a long way toward  restoring civility.  It’s an attitude Christians  ought to be able to bring  to discussion and debate, whatever our view on the issues at stake.

    As citizens and as Christians,  we should take seriously what both of today’s lessons emphasize,  that the absence of civility  is anything but  a trivial matter.  Jesus essentially equates incivility  with murder  in his “You heard it was said…. but I say to you” teachings.  We have seen all too often  incivility leading to murder.  Jesus  virtually equates  attitude and act.  Words  can kill, he says.  Abusive language  can inflict  mortal wounds  on the mind and soul and heart  of another person.  Apparently, we don’t get away  with telling God,  “It was just talk; it didn’t mean anything.”  The way we talk – even the way we think – is an indication  of the way we live.  Jesus says, “You will have to give an account  for every careless word you utter.”

    And the Book of James  issues a warning  about the harmful effects of uncivil language  which one contemporary translation renders this way:  “It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire.  The careless or wrongly placed word  out of your mouth can do that.  By our speech we can ruin  the world,  turn harmony into chaos, throw  mud  on a reputation, send the whole world  up in smoke  and go up in smoke  with it.”

    As Christian citizens, we can refuse  to use  disrespectful, hurtful speech, which is where  violence  begins.  We can refuse to participate in the language of divisiveness,  of the demeaning of character  and demonizing of foes.  We can insist  on civility  from those in the media, in politics, in sports, in schools – and  in the churches. 

    We can  examine  our own behavior,  review  our own habits of speech.  Every one of us contributes daily  to either  the barbarism  or  the civility of our common life.  We speak respectfully  or we ridicule.  We tell and listen to bigoted jokes,  or we don’t.  We gossip or we don’t.  We spread rumors or we won’t.  We express our opinions with humility or with arrogance.  We speak disparagingly of people of another race or religion or life-style or political party,  or  we refuse to do that.

    I want say something  about the means available to us  when we have differences. And, specifically, I want to caution  about the reactive use  of social media. Have you had this experience? Someone does something that makes you angry, and so  you fire  off  a retaliatory email, or text message, or Tweet. And what happens is  that instead of reducing the tensions, what you did is:  you escalated them. Oh, the damage we can do. So, please, be careful  with the temptation to knee-jerk texting and emailing. Remember the old-fashioned counsel to “count to ten.” Calm down. Think about your feelings. May pray about them. Sleep on it. Then consider responding – best in a face-to-face conversation. Know what I’m talking about? 

    Those of us who are parents and grandparents, teachers in school or in church, leaders of Scout troops or coaches of teams – we can engage in what Theodore Parker Ferris  called  “basic training.”  Training  in things  such as:  consideration,  courtesy,  kindness,  listening,  telling the truth,  caring about other people,  including those  whom  you don’t  really like.  

    Aristotle expected  that  it was too much  to ask people  to be good.  About the most that could be hoped of  ordinary people, he said,  is that we learn and teach  good habits – the habits of decency, respect and kindness,  the habits  that fashion  a civilized, civil  person.

    Or consider  Jesus’ belief  that  what comes out of us  is  what is  inside of us.  “The good person brings good things out of a good treasure,  and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure.”

    Stephen Covey  emphasizes this  inside-out approach in his Seven Habits:  Start with the self, he urges.  Even more fundamentally,  start with the innermost  part of the self, which is your character.  The inside-out approach  says  that if you pay attention  to what goes in,  you don't have to worry so much  about  what comes out.  Which is no  small part  of what the church is here  to help us with.

    * * * *

    This weekend we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Part of the legacy Dr. King left us  which warrants celebration  is his  example  of civility. Issues mattered to him, and he fought hard and long  for racial justice, for integration, for the poor, for the end of the Vietnam War, among other things. In doing so, he was often the target  of  incivility,  of verbal abuse on the streets of Skokie,  of physical violence – he was punched, he was stabbed – of unjust imprisonment. He endured relentless  death threats. But, remarkably,  he did not descend  to the level of his adversaries. In the face of violence,  he practiced  non-violence. Confronted with attacks  against himself  and his people, he responded by persistently  calling on this society to live up to its ideals.  He serves as an example  of how to engage the issues,  fight hard  for what you believe,  and yet  do so  without degrading, dehumanizing, or demonizing  those who disagree.

    To Dr. King, it was at the heart of the Gospel  to recognize  that love  could really change  a situation of conflict.  That was the purpose of aggressive  non-violent action  in Selma, Birmingham, and elsewhere:  love  reaching out toward the oppressor,  love  forcing negotiation.  He was not naïve  about the persistence and power  of evil.  But his evangelical Christian faith  insisted  that even the most hardened sinner  runs the risk of being converted.  He really believed  that ruthless Southern sheriffs  and politicians  were sheep  who had strayed from the fold.  And that however powerful evil is,  love  is more powerful still.  Said Coretta Scott King,  “He refused  to lose faith  in the ultimate redemption of humanity.”

* * * *

    There was an unusually public, unusually positive and bipartisan meeting  at the White House  last Tuesday. A made-for-TV event, certainly. But hopeful, in that the topics were  DACA  and immigration reform. But two days later  there came  that unbelievably  racist vulgarism  about wanting Norwegians to immigrate,  and not  people from  “s---hole” countries. So here’s my take-away. We, as Christian citizens,  can’t  merely wait  for  public figures  to do what is right  on our behalf.  We mustn’t sit around  in hopes that Washington – or  Springfield – will do justice  and love kindness for us. That kind of apathy  is no way to honor  the legacy of Dr. King.  

    Because, friends, we each  and together  have important roles and responsibilities. So join me, please, in our striving, consciously and intentionally, to reflect and express –  in the living of our days – the civility  of Jesus Christ.  


     – With thanks to Eugene Bay, David Broder, Martin Marty and James McClendon
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Where it all begins

1/7/2018

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Sunday, January 7, 2018
Trinity United Church of Christ, Deerfield
Kent M. Organ, Interim Pastor
Text: Isaiah 42:1-9; Mark 1:4-11


“In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee  and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”  According to Mark, it is this incident that constitutes the beginning of the good news.  It’s the beginning of his Gospel.  There, in the muck and mud of the Jordan River, is where it all begins: the miracle of grace, the manifestation of God’s love, the ministry of reconciliation through Jesus Christ our Lord.  It all begins  with John’s baptism of Jesus.

It’s not only Mark who says so.  Each of the Gospels  makes the Jordan River  the place where it all begins.  True, in the other Gospels  there  are preceding events.  But all four agree  that the baptism of Jesus  is the moment  when he begins to fulfill his destiny.

We are naturally curious about the earlier years.  We wonder about the influence of Joseph and Mary.  What did Jesus learn from them  about their faith tradition?  What was his experience of God  as a child,  as a teenager?  How did he arrive at his sense of vocation?  Aside from  one story – about the 12-year old’s visit to the Temple – we know next to nothing about any of this.  These were the silent years.  Fred Craddock says,  “You don’t hear  roots  growing.  They had to be silent years.”

All we know  is that, one day,  Jesus  put down his woodworking tools, took leave of his family and his hometown,  and went out into the wilderness  where John was preaching “a baptism  of repentance.”  There,  Jesus joined all the others  who were responding to John’s preaching.  Along with them,  he also  waded into the river  and was baptized.

The question is,  why?  We ask,  because John’s baptism  was for the forgiveness of sins.  What  was Jesus doing  in that crowd?  What did he have  to repent of?

That he was there – in the Jordan, undergoing baptism – is something  even the most skeptical participant in the Jesus Seminar  does not dispute.  The reason being  that  no believer  would have made up this story.  The Savior of the world  submitting to a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”  is a little embarrassing.  And the Gospel writers are nervous  in telling about it.  According to Matthew, John the Baptist was reluctant, saying  he needed to be baptized by Jesus.  He went through with it, Matthew says,  only because Jesus insisted.  Luke makes as little of the event as possible.  The Fourth Gospel is so defensive about Jesus’ sinlessness  that it doesn’t explicitly say  that he was baptized.  It just says  that John saw the Spirit descend on Jesus like a dove,  but neglects to mention  that Jesus was standing waist-deep in the Jordan River when it happened.  Mark seems the least embarrassed,  but even he has John proclaim of Jesus, “…I am not worthy to… untie the thong of his sandals.”

So, what are we to make of Jesus’ baptism?  In spite of their discomfort about it,  why do all four Gospels insist  that Jesus’ baptism  is where it all begins?
Here’s what I think.  Jesus went out to where John was baptizing  because the time had come for him to respond  to God’s claim on his life.  John was baptizing  at the Jordan – the very  river boundary  which,  when the children of Egypt  came out of the wilderness,  they crossed  to enter the Promised Land.  Many Israelites, during this time,  were seeking a renewal of their peoplehood.  What did it mean  to serve God  together  in this world?  Where had they failed?  What was required of them now?  Galvanized by the witness of John,  the people returned  to the  place  of their beginnings in a new land:  to the Jordan.  It was like  going back to Ellis Island   to start over,  at least  to get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty  to remember  what  our peoplehood  is all about.  Friends,  a pastoral interim  can be something like this, as we’re seeing. It is an opportunity  to step back and remember: Who are we?  Why are we here?  What is it that God wants us to be, and do?  Getting in touch with our Christian identity, and our unique calling.

So, of course,  Jesus went there – to be baptized – identifying with all  who recognized the need  to start over again  on a more faithful path  as servants of God in this world.

* * * *

The Baptism of Christ, observed today in churches around the world,  witnesses to Jesus’ solidarity with  and compassion  for  all of us who come  on a Sunday morning,  just as our ancestors went  to the Jordan River.  They went, and we come,  with a multitude of aspirations  and anxieties,  with our failures – individual and corporate – in what we have done  and not done.  The Baptism of Jesus was then  and is now  the sign that Christ saves us  not  by shouting instructions from the safety of the shore,  but is down in the mud  with us,  joining us in the sorrow of repentance  and the joy of a new beginning.  

What would have constituted sin  for Jesus  would have been for him  not to have been baptized – to turn away  from his destiny,  to refuse to be  Emmanuel, “God  with us.”  But he didn’t refuse.  He didn’t separate himself  from us  with our questions, our failures of will  and of nerve,  our failures  to do the good we know.  He went down to the Jordan  and joined us.  His baptism is a luminous sign  that he is truly  one of us.  Which is why Mark calls it “the beginning  of the good news  of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

What was not obvious  then,  but is  now  is how his baptism marked the beginning in another sense.  It launched him on a ministry that would take him from the Jordan  to the poor, to lepers, to the tables of social outcasts, public sinners,  to the weak and powerless, to those who are weary and carrying heavy burdens,  and finally – on Calvary – to a convicted criminal at the place of his execution,  His baptism, in other words,  is the beginning of a journey  that will lead Jesus  to the cross  where, as Paul declares,  “For our sakes [God] made him  to be sin  who knew no sin,”  and where,  as the Philippian hymn says,  “Though he was in the form of God, he emptied himself,  taking the form of a servant.”

* * * *

The account of Jesus’ baptism  belongs  to the season of Epiphany.  Epiphany means “manifestation,” “disclosure.”  What Jesus’ baptism  discloses  is who  he is – the beloved Son – and what he does,  as the beloved Son:  he becomes one  with us.  In the end, his identification with us  and his commitment to us  will take him to the cross.  But it begins  at the Jordan.  From that act of solidarity,  it was almost inevitable  that the time would come when, as Paul puts it,  God  would prove God’s love for us  in that  while we were sinners  Christ would die for us.

Baptism is where it all begins – not only for Jesus, but also for you and me.  That is to say,  our journey of faith begins  at the baptismal font.  It is there  that we first know the grace of God in Christ.  It is there  we are first shown that our lives are not our own.  “In baptism God claims us, and puts a sign on us to show that we belong to God.”  Like Jesus at the Jordan,  at the font  we are given our identity:  “See what love God has for us,” we are told, “that we should be called children of God, and so we are.”  At the baptismal font  we not only learn who we are,  we learn  what we are to do – we are given our vocation.  “By water and the Holy Spirit…  we are joined to Christ’s ministry of love, justice and peace.”

For us too,  baptism is where it all begins.  It’s where God first says to us, “You belong to me; you are loved by me.  Stop worrying about  whether that is true or not, and start learning to follow the way my Son  shows you.  Stop fretting about who you are – you are my beloved!  Get on  with the life I have called you to live, and with the work I have given you to do.”

Each year, on this Sunday, we at Trinity  are encouraged to renew our baptism vows. Why so often? Why – every year? Because it is easy to forget  to whom we belong. Are we primarily  Democrats, or Republicans? White Sox fans, or Cubs fans? Caucasians,  or members of  the human race? Americans, or citizens of the world? Here, today, we remember – and attest – that fundamentally,  we  belong  to God,  the God we know  in and through Jesus the Christ. Which tells us important things  about  those  other  belongings of ours.

Baptism  is where it all begins.  For Jesus, it’s at the Jordan River.  There  he begins to fulfill his destiny  as Emmanuel, God with us.  For us, it is  at the font.  That is where we  re-begin  our life-long journey  as God’s  own.

- With thanks to Gene Bay, John Burkhart and Barbara Brown Taylor
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    Pastor Dale

    For me, the intersection of faith and life is full of insight and surprise. Browse here for sermons and other meditations and musings.

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