SERMONS

Luke 4:14—22 and readings from the words of Mahatma Gandhi, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Audre Lorde, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Sunday, January 17, 2010
Reverend Angela Ying

Fear

A four letter word that can stop us in being who we are called to be, God’s beloved.

Fear

A four letter word that keeps us from acting in faith as we choose to remain numb and silent.

Fear

A four letter word that allows people not to see themselves and others for who they truly are.

Fear—of which people lived and still live.

And yet, God is the God who seeks to liberate all people from our fears.

When Abraham was afraid to go to a new place, God gave Abraham courage to face the unknown and to follow God to an unknown place.

When Moses was afraid to speak and confront the Pharaoh and his empire to let his people go, God gave Moses the voice to lead.

When the people in the wilderness after their Exodus from empire were afraid they would have no food, God sent down manna and quail every day from the heavens and reminded them to distribute and share the food with one another, which meant no hoarding and thus, taking only what each person needed.

When Elijah the prophet was afraid and hid in a cave to get away from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel—having kings and queens against you is not a safe place to be—God send a messenger to tell the prophet to get up and eat for there was still much work Elijah and God had to do with God’s people.

When the people were in exile after King David, the shepherd boy had lead them to unity as an united kingdom of Judah and Israel, died, and the Assyrians and Babylonians took over—God gave this community, now a remnant, a faith and a purpose to sing and pray even in exile, even in what was for them a foreign land.

When Mary was afraid of what giving birth to God’s Son might do, God gave her the wisdom and perseverance to still say “Yes” to God amidst her fears.

And when the disciples of Jesus were afraid and behind closed doors having witnessed the crucified Christ—God gave them the power of the Holy Spirit to speak in their native languages and to rejoice in the good news and their diversity.

When the destruction came this week in Haiti, it was unimaginable.

But for the people of Haiti, the effects wrought by Tuesday, January 12th catastrophic earthquake at 7.0 magnitude were all too real.

As one Washington Post journalist described, “the children, cradled in their parents arms with bandages that swathed away their bloodied heads—few having the energy to cry.”

Tens of thousands of people are dead. 50,000 to 100,000 people estimated dead by the Washington Post with this being the largest earthquake ever recorded in this poorest of countries in the area—centered ten miles west of Haiti’s capital of Port—au—Prince.

Former President of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide, who gave his Haitian people voice, living in exile in Africa since he was ousted five years ago said in love of Haiti and the people, he wants “to return to his quake—devastated country and is prepared to leave immediately.”

The United States Department says 45,000 Americans live in Haiti—we are not only our brother and sister’s keeper, in Haiti, they are us and we are them.

So much so that when the people in Haiti were devastated by the massive earthquake in a poor country—there was:

A Taiwanese search and rescue team

A Chinese search and rescue team

A German rescue team

A French civil security rescue team

A Spanish firefighter rescue team

A British

A Mexican

A African rescue team and more of the international community.

Amid rubble and ruin, our duty and faith to our international brothers and sisters of Haiti remains whether we are afraid or not.

When Jesus claim up out of the water, the Spirit of God came like a dove and a voice said, “You are my Beloved.”

As I shared with you last Sunday, you are God’s beloved. We are God’s Beloved.

For you see, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu who had lived through the atrocities of a South African apartheid and headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission eloquently shares in his book No Future Without Forgiveness:

“Our God is preeminently the God of grace. What we are, what we have, even our salvation, all is gift, all is grace, not to be achieved but to be received as a gift freely given.

God does not give up on anyone, for God loved us from all eternity, God loves us now and God will always love us, all of us good and bad, forever and ever.

God’s love will not let us go. For God’s love for us, all of us, good and bad, is unchanging, is unchangeable.

There is nothing I can do to make God love me more, for God loves me perfectly already. And wonderfully, there is nothing I can do to make God love me less.”

And just as Jesus discovered after his baptism that in being Beloved, one has and needs to us the capacity and responsibility to love all people back.

The same Spirit of God who blesses Jesus sends him to the wilderness, connecting Jesus to the people of the Exodus and their faith in God’s liberation from their individual and collective bondage.

The same Spirit of God who blesses and sends Jesus to the wilderness, anoints Jesus to bring good news to the poor.

For Jesus knew that the spiritual health and well—being of a community of faith is how we respond to:

The least

The last

The lost

The poor

For if you and I have missed the point that bears repeating—God, the very God we worship, the One for whom we gather every Sunday to sing praise—the God who hears our prayers and calls us and our children to not only live a life of prayer but to be a prayer—is God, the God of the oppressed.

God is God of the oppressed.

Which is why Jesus and his disciples are sent out into the world to not only bring good news to the poor, reminding each of us of our roots and our name—Beth—any from the Hebrew “house of God of and for the poor” but also to find relief for those captive, recovery of sight to those made blind and to let the oppressed go free!

This is an incredible task this Spirit of God dares to give us, as a community, as we seek to be faithful.

And as we seek to be faithful, people will be amazed—not at us, mind you, but at God.

That God would work through a house of God of and for the poor called Beth—any on the south end of Seattle.

That God would pray that we not close our eyes, our hearts and our checkbooks, when it comes to giving relief to our international brothers and sisters in Haiti.

That God would smile in the ability of the human community to move, by faith, from Bloody Sunday to becoming as a our brother, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, a man of God called, the Beloved Community.

I do not know about you, but I do not come and worship God week after week in this house of God of and for the poor called Beth—any because I have nothing better to do.

I have plenty to do. You have plenty to do.

And there is still plenty more for us to still do.

I come because the Spirit of God has given me this one life to bring good news to the poor and I cannot do it without being community—in a Beloved Community.

I cannot be who I am supposed to be as God’s beloved—without God.

I cannot be who God wants me to be as God’s beloved—without Community—a community aware of becoming a part of the wider international Beloved Community.

For in this Martin Luther King County, the only one in our great nation, where our King County logo has changed because of the people—from an imperial crown to the human face and image of Martin Luther King, Jr., a man of deep faith in God—willing to die for an interracial democracy, so blacks and all of us brown people could have vote and voice and could eat, study, pray and work with their white brothers and sisters across the globe—we as a Bethany community need to keep working in faith so that our diversity and our differences of this amazing nation and all of God’s nations have hope, soul and strength.

And where your zip code is simply an address and not a lifetime determinate—or a prediction of whether our nation’s children get an education, health care or whether they are rich or poor.

For to not only be Beloved in God’s eyes, but to become God’s Beloved Community is to be a nation at peace with itself—a people, who know what peace is and what it requires.

As our brother in faith, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr knew:

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” Justice for all—justice as the prophet Amos said that will roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever—flowing stream—justice which Martin knew came from the same God, the same prophets and the same Scriptures who professed Jesus Christ.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

And yet, be for warned in our task in becoming God’s Beloved Community, some will say as they said of Jesus, “Isn’t he the carpenter, Joseph’s son?” What can he do?

Some will say: Aren’t they just Beth—any—the house of God of and for the poor on the south end of town? What can they do?

Martin Luther King, Jr. at the early age of seven, the same age of my own daughter, was confronted and met with prejudice and racism.

Congressman John Lewis, who I went to hear speak on Wednesday because my soul needed to be in community, shared the importance of being a diverse community to stop prejudice and racism.

When he was seven and growing up in rural Alabama in the town called Troy, he asked his parents, “Why are our black and brown children not able to be with the white children in church, in school, on the bus, anywhere?”

His parents said, “Don’t get involved, don’t get in the way and don’t get in trouble.”

When he asked, ”Why is there segregation? Why is there racism?”

His parents said, “Don’t get involved, don’t get in the way and don’t get in trouble.”

So, John Lewis was a teenager at the age of 15, he and his parents heard the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in the church.

And now, for fifty years, as a civil and human rights leader, John Lewis says he continues to get involved, get in the way and get in trouble, because of his pastor, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and hope of the Beloved community.

People lived and still live in fear.

And yet, prophets then and now inspire us to be liberated from our fears, so that with God we as a community dare to move from Bloody Sunday to becoming God’s Beloved Community.

People and prophets who give us courage to walk out of our own and the world’s darkness and into the light.

Only a few years ago, even in my lifetime, black men, women and children were brutally attacked, beaten and hosed down by the Alabama police, and young black men were killed by the KKK when they went to check out why there was a burning of an African American church killing little black Sunday school girls.

Through the Jesus and God he believed in, Martin Luther King, Jr. had the

Message of Love

Work of Human Rights

Method of Nonviolence and Forgiveness

And the Goal of the Beloved Community

That is my prayer this morning. That we hear the good news, bring the good news to the poor, respond to the cries of the people in Haiti, and in asking why, and having our children ask why—will, with the help of community, get involved, get in the way and get in trouble, for the love of God.

For you see, as Gandhi shares, “Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, prayer is the most potent instrument of action.

The Spirit of God is upon us to bring good news to the poor.

What better message to bring us out of our own fear into faithful action and compassion.

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Following the sermon and a moment of silence, this Bethany community of faith listened to the following reading from the words of Mahatma Gandhi, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Audre Lorde and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, all people of faith and collect funds to send to Partners in Health who have been working directly with the people of Haiti for over twenty years.

Readings from the words of Mahatma Gandhi

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

Readings from the words of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self—centered people have torn down, other—centered people can build up.

An individual has not started living until he or she can rise above the narrow confines of his or her individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.

Readings from the words of Mahatma Gandhi

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without heart.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer, one add something new to one’s life, something with which nothing can be compared.

Readings from the words of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of human beings is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Readings from the words of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God. We have genuflected before the god of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb. We have worshipped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short—lived. We have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such things as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of possible depressions, stock market crashes, and bad business investments, money is a rather uncertain deity. These transitory gods are not able to save or bring happiness to the human heart. Only God is able. It is faith in God that we must rediscover.”

Congregation sings first two verses of “We Shall Overcome”

We shall overcome—today

We’ll walk hand in hand—today

Readings from the words of Audre Lorde

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised and misunderstood.

I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.

When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

Without community, there is no liberation.

Readings from the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Our God is preeminently the God of grace. What we are, what we have, even our salvation, all is gift, all is grace, not to be achieved but to be received as a gift freely given. God does not give up on anyone, for God loved us from all eternity, God loves us now and God will always love us, all of us good an bad, forever and ever. God’s love will not let us go. For God’s love for us, all of us, good and bad, is unchanging, is unchangeable. There is nothing I can do to make God love me more, for God loves me perfectly already. And wonderfully, there is nothing I can do to make God love me less.

Congregation Sings “We Shall Overcome” verses 3 and 4

We are not afraid—today

Our God will see us through—today

Readings from the Words of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s final speech the day before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968

We have been forced to a point where we’re going to have to grapple with the problems that people have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it.

Survival demands that we grapple with them. People, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But no longer can we talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world, it is nonviolence or nonexistence.

That is where we are today. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done, and in a hurry, to bring peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed.

…Let us rise up today with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge.

… I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And God’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know that we as a people will get to the promised land.

I am happy today; I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any one. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Congregation sings “We Shall Overcome” verses 5 and 6

The truth shall set us free—today

We will live in peace—some day