SERMONS

Micah 6:8, John 2:1-11

The Reverend Angela L. Ying
Bethany United Church of Christ, Seattle
January 18, 2009

I have question for you. What do you hope to build as a bridge builder?

You do know you are a bridge builder.

I hope this realization does not come as a surprise to you — for to enter in this amazing house of God, you have to have agreed to be a bridge builder or you are about to get a rude awakening from God that this is one of your callings here.

I do not mean that all of us are engineers working on the 520 Bridge. I mean bridge builders for God.

You see, one does not just walk into this house of God, called Bethany, without eventually discovering that Bethany in Hebrew means “house of the poor” and in Greek refers to the place Jesus often went for hospitality at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

You cannot walk into this house of God by pure accident, because with God, there are no accidents, only carefully woven plans that unfold in God’s time—in ways we could not have imagined.

And even if you thought you had come to this house of God by accident—well, welcome, for some one in this house of God will prayerfully call attention to the Holy Spirit and make your presence known, so that we do not leave the same way we came.

Now let me warn you—that in this house of God, where you discover you are a bridge builder for God, this does not mean there is never any confrontation, conflict or commotion.

On the contrary, if you and I are doing our job as Christian people—there will often be all three present, especially as we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.

For in this house of God, nine years ago, most people thought Bethany Church would close within one year. Imagine that! Thought there was no way on heaven or on earth that people of different races, backgrounds and cultures would gather together to worship God. The statistics were on their side. For less than seven percent of churches nationally have more than one race or ethnicity in their churches.

They said there were no second generation Taiwanese American pastors to lead. You, dear Bethany, have the first one!

They said an ordained Presbyterian could not lead a United Church of Christ new church, but what about Ruth, the Moabite, and Moses, born Hebrew and grew up Egyptian and married a foreigner, and Paul, who did not want anything to do with the church and undergoes transformation on the road and ends up writing most of the letters of the New Testament giving witness to God.

They said there would never be a black man in the White House. But in two days, there will be—in Barack Obama, not to mention an intelligent and beautiful First Lady, who will dare to set her own trends, as a real role model, in Michelle Obama.

So, if you have walked into this house of God this morning, you know that our brother, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was sowing seeds for a larger vision for all of us when he said, “Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. is the most segregated hour of the week.”

In honor of our brother, Martin, this multiracial, multicultural, intergenerational house of God chooses to meet at 10:30 a.m. – so we have at least one half hour of rehearsal time before Bethany Church breaks another national church norm. (Amen!)

Day by day, given who I am, I have learned how to live in a multiethnic world where I have one foot rooted in my heritage and one foot rooted in the cultures of other people. As a Christian, you and I are cross cultural, for we need to have one foot grounded in our own identity as a person of faith and one foot grounded in the broken and bruised world needing justice and compassion.

The unique gift that God has given us in Bethany Church is that by being who we are, from all walks of life, we are bridge builders. You are a bridge builder. And so are you.

And yet, being a bridge builder in today’s world is no simple task.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the master bridge builders. I say Reverend because he was a minister – a child of God, a man of faith and not just a civil rights leader. He knew, as Jesus and Gandhi did before him, that “we as human beings are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality—tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all people indirectly.”

Knowing and understanding the struggles of the people of all races – the Rev. Dr. King also shared that “modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word. It is the word “maladjusted.” Now we should all seek to live a well-adjusted life. But there are some things within our social order to which Dr. King was proud to be maladjusted.

I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and militarism. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things as well.

Being a bridge builder for God at Bethany means that we choose to do justice rather than to adjust to the injustices we see concerning racism, materialism and militarism.

In her book The Courage for Peace, Louise Diamond shares how she imagines in front of her is a big empty bucket.

This is the hole or gap in humanity’s heart that allows us to hate and hurt one another, forgetting our inherent wisdom about our interconnectedness as bridge builders.

So, you and I sit with this big empty bucket, and we hold in our hands a drop of water – which represents a thought, a word, an action that we might take to heal that big hole. My drop may seem infinitesimally small compared to the large empty bucket.

But I have a choice of what to do with my drop. I can put it into the bucket, or I can cast it aside. If I keep choosing to put every drop that comes into my hands into the bucket, and you with others do so as well, then eventually the bucket will fill up, draw others out, and be given to all as it overflows.

If I choose to withhold my drop, and others also carefully do the same, the bucket will never fill.

Our individual and collective drops are powerful and build on each other to create a critical mass. In this way, we are responsible for growing justice and peace in our lives and in the world, for we each have drops of thought, word and action — that we alone can offer.

When we believe that someone else controls the faucet that fills or empties the bucket, we collude in the fantasy of our own helplessness.

And yet, we are not helpless – we carry the power to change the world.

Six months before he was assassinated, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to students in Philadelphia. He asked them:

What is your life’s blueprint?

Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.

Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.”

Rev. Dr. King suggested some of the things that should be in your life’s blueprint.

Number one in your life’s blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you’re nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

Secondly, in your life’s blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor … Set out to do it well.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.”

In our scripture passage, the prophet Micah not only has a life’s blueprint from God. He shares it with us, the people. “God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”

Do justice or to put it another way, as in our gospel text, “What have you to do with me?”

The hall is filled with people invited to a celebration. And yet, amidst all of our best laid plans in life, somehow, the wine runs dry. Now, I don’t mean there was only Cabernet Sauvignon wine left. As Mary, mother of Jesus shares with her son “They have NO WINE, period.”

A big empty bucket, you might say.

Now Mary knows this would be a real embarrassment leading to all kinds of shame, guilt, and bad memories – a celebration gone awry for a family of simple means from Cana in Galilee joyfully inviting and welcoming more people than they expected would come.

I have a hunch Jesus knew this – filling the empty jars with life-giving water and turning it into the best of wines becomes not an act of saving face or keeping one’s image, but rather a genuine gift of sharing God’s abundance — an act of doing justice.

How do we know this? Jesus responds, “What have you to do with me?” and then he waits for God for the right time.

No one except those who are called to serve get to witness the transformation of the ordinary water.

Jesus tells those serving: “Fill the jars.” And the servants filled them all the way up.

“Draw some out.” And the water is changed into wine.

“Give it to the head steward.” Who is not aware of what happened. But is the one called to share the good news of serving people with the very best.

Six stone jars holding twenty to thirty gallons. No longer empty or left to dry but rather used as instruments of grace as each becomes a vessel to

Fill Up
Draw Out
Give to Others
And Keep Serving the People What Is Good

If we read the story carefully, we see that only the people who serve actually witness the first of Jesus’ miracles. Not the wedding party, not the invited guests and not the head steward, herself.

And yet, all, by the grace of God, experience the effects of the very One who comes showing us how to live in God’s abundance through justice rather than in fear and scarcity.

Two days before this historical inauguration of the very first African American President of the United States, Barack Obama, are we ready to fill up as a nation, not with foreign oil purchased with blood, but with acts of doing justice?

Are we willing to ask for and draw justice out of ourselves and others to be, as Gandhi said, the change that we want to see in the world? Will we give to others wholeheartedly and keep serving all God’s people what is good?

For given these times, we have our work cut out for us if Micah’s words ring true. “O mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.”

Two hundred years after Abraham Lincoln was born, who would have imagined we would get our first black American President.

But as the Rev. Dr. King often shared, we always need to be prepared for doors to open that were not open to our mothers and fathers.

Though less well-known than his “I Have a Dream” speech, the Reverend Dr. King said in his April 4, 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” in opposition to the Vietnam War, exactly one year before the Reverend Dr. King was assassinated, “we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. Yes, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that is only the initial act. For we must be transformed so that men, women and [I have added children here] will not be constantly beaten, robbed and left to die as they make their journey on life’s highway.”

Transformed. Changed as every day people to faithful bridge builders. Changed as ordinary water into extraordinary wine. Changed from a homogeneous house of God to one that seeks to be and to reflect the kingdom of God. Changed to serve and give witness to God in ways we never thought possible, but now is possible.

Yes we can! ….You knew I would say that.

Or as one poet writes:

God said: “Come to the edge”
The people said: “No, we are afraid”
And God said, “Come to the edge”
And the people said, “No, we dare not”
And God said: “Come to the edge”
And the people came
And God pushed them gently
And they flew.

Since her birth and with this faith community, our daughter has been to dozens of rallies to end the war on Iraq and has marched with us every year on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in a call for justice. She, as many children, innately knows – No justice. No peace. In continuing the journey to do justice, we also take time to pray, to study, to meditate, and to be grounded in singing to our children, praying to God for peace:

Peace, Peace, Peace – we prayyyyyyyy for Peace. Will you join me?

[The congregation is invited to prayerfully join in singing this prayer of peace]

Our brother, the Rev. Dr. King said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

As a bridge builder for God, the first thing on the blueprint is DO JUSTICE. Next week, we will learn the second thing – which is Love Kindness.

For as I look into our children’s eyes, I think of the children around the world, including Iraq, Darfur, the Middle East — and how Jesus Christ preached of doing justice – doing justice, not for a select few, but how he came for the people of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds – a justice and love for the whole human race.

Our children deserve a better future. To learn the spiritual disciplines to fill up with justice, draw it out of themselves and others, give justice to others and keep serving all the people what is good. That, in the words of the prophet, is to do justice.

We cannot, nor dare not, pass on to our children anything less. Our humanity is at stake. As a bridge builder for God, “What have you to do with me?”

Why — EVERYTHING!

Copyright © 2009 Angela Ying. All rights reserved.