C3/CCC Sermon Transcript for April 13, 2008
As we begin, I ask you to pause and consider the magnificence of life and the awesome privilege and responsibility of being human at this time in history. Pause to honor the God within. You have within you a fire of love, truth and beauty that is unquenchable. Smile in recognition of your own beauty. Now, honor the God between. Say to someone close to you, “You are part of me, and I am part of you.” If you prefer, just say g’day but do it with a profound sense of relatedness. Finally, honor the God beyond. Expand your consciousness to include people near and far, known and unknown, living and non living matter. Send your infinite love, light and healing energy to all the earth like a blanket of warm acceptance and compassion. Indigenous Discipleship Early this week I was on vacation. I woke in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I thought I would spend some time gathering my thoughts on discipleship for this sermon. The very thought of preparing a sermon on vacation must have done the trick, as I immediately fell fast asleep, snoring up a storm. I then had a vivid dream that the staff had changed the time and venue of today’s service without telling me. I eventually found you all, only to realize that I was not prepared in the slightest, and you guessed it I was still in my pajamas. I woke up in a cold sweat. So you can imagine my relief a few nights later, when I had my next bout of vacation insomnia, and my sermon appeared to my mind as if in a dream. The connection was our vacation visit to an indigenous tribe, the Embera people of Panama; warm, generous people. We had the chance to speak with the chief, via a translator, about spirituality and other customs and culture changes. He spoke about the tribe’s incredible respect for the earth, and their belief that everything in nature is filled with spiritual significance. He said they had no special days or rituals, because every moment and everything in nature is filled with awe. He spoke about their reliance on the moon for cutting wood ready for hut building and canoes. I suggested that the world would be a better place if more people practiced this form of natural spirituality. The chief then spoke about the role of Christian missionaries who had come to make followers of Jesus. He said that many of the tribe are now either protestant or catholic depending on the particular missionary influence. Whoa! Protestant or Catholic- that was the choice? How limiting! That’s like the line in the cult movie, The Blues Brothers- “We play both kinds of music- country and western.” Who are the missionaries kidding? These people were already disciples of Jesus. Without even knowing the name Jesus, they knew the essence of his teaching that life’s truth is written into nature. Now, I suspect there are some western innovations that the Embera people could benefit from. But, I fail to see much in western religion that could improve on their native spirituality. They were already disciples of Jesus, by living with integrity and trusting nature. If Jesus was alive today, he would be horrified by Christian missionaries who rob culture and spirituality from indigenous people. If Jesus was alive today, he would be horrified by the Christian church’s tendency to separate people and create “others”, whether the “other” is a gay person, a woman or the earth. If Jesus was alive today, he would be devastated by the neglect of the earth in the name of anthropocentric religion. If Jesus was alive today, he wouldn’t want more Christians. He would want more humans who shatter boundaries of difference and live the interrelatedness of native spirituality. Discipleship- Not Beliefs, But Behaviors If discipleship is about numbers and converts, then Jesus own ministry was a dismal failure. Think about it. After 3 years, he had just 11 disciples, most of whom had little idea what he was talking about. Discipleship is not about numbers and converts. Discipleship is not about signing up for Jesus, and forsaking your own culture and context. Discipleship is about following your bliss, being true to your human calling and knowing your relatedness to all of life. Most of us were taught that discipleship is about assenting to certain beliefs. Whether it’s the 39 articles, or the Heidelberg Catechism, many of us had to memorize or in some way agree to certain beliefs. Maybe you had to stand up in front of a church and show your agreement before becoming a member. Discipleship is not about beliefs. Its about behavior, and values. Discipleship- Not Piety, But Passion I used to think of discipleship as a matter of piety. Being a disciple was somehow about being more virtuous in an otherworldly way; like not cursing. Now I think of discipleship as being more radical, urgent and passionate. You might have seen in the news this week the story about the “Santa Clausification” of Martin Luther King. Dr Cornel West said this about King- “Martin has been so domesticated and tamed and defamed, you know, what we call the Santa Clausification of the brother. He just becomes a nice little old man with a smile, with toys in his bag, not a threat to anybody, as if his fundamental commitment to unconditional love and unarmed truth does not bring to bear certain kinds of pressure to a status quo. So the status quo feels so comfortable as though it's a convenient thing to do rather than acknowledge him as to what he was, what the FBI said, "The most dangerous man in America." Why? Because of his fundamental commitment to love and to justice and trying to keep track of the humanity of each and every one of us.” In the same interview West spoke about the Santa Clausification of Jesus. Jesus was a firebrand and challenged other firebrands to follow suit. He was anything but otherworldly and polite. He was a man on a mission. West said every time the name King is used, it should be shouted with passion. The same could be said of the name of Jesus. Forget Jesus, meek and mild, man of sorrows. The name Jesus should be spoken with a sense of urgent indignance about injustice. Reclaiming Discipleship Two weeks ago, I spoke about reclaiming sin because evangelicals only speak about sin as personal guilt and liberals don’t talk about sin at all. There’s a place for lament and sadness. Reclaim sin as personal responsibility and global accountability. Similarly, there is a place for discipline and urgency. Evangelicals try to put discipleship in a neat box of beliefs, and life is not like that. The liberal church on the other hand has no passion. In the guise of being “inclusive”, the liberal church has forgotten how to stand for anything, so now it falls for everything. Discipleship is all but lost. Its time to reclaim the urgency and passion of discipleship. German theologians after WW2 paved the way for a more passionate Christian discipleship. Bonhoeffer wrote a book called “The Cost of Discipleship” in the context of the rise of Hitler. The assumption for Bonhoeffer, and Tillich and many others, was that to follow Jesus was to seek the demise of Hitler and everything Hitler stood for. Theirs was an urgent moral responsibility. Taking up their crosses meant being exiled from their countries, placed in prison camps and losing their lives for the cause of peace and justice. Now, our progressive scholars have placed the first century ministry of Jesus in the context of his radical social revolution; to overturn oppressive systems and empower the poor. Spong, who will be here in just a few weeks, Armstrong and Crossan, have given us a way to reclaim the ministry of Jesus and live its radical, passionate emphasis in our world. Discipleship in the Context of the Major Issues of the Day Being a disciple of Jesus is about bringing the passion of activism to bear on the weighty issues of the day. Being a disciple of Jesus 60- 70 years ago was about opposing Hitler. Being a disciple of Jesus 40-50 years ago was about pursuing civil rights. What is the essence of being a disciple of Jesus today? Is it partly about reversing climate change? There are other issues. We have identified 10 core values for this community that are in effect our discipleship issues; relevant religion, sexual and gender liberation, peace and social justice, wholistic health practices, intelligent free thought, the validity and universality of all faith paths, the power of creativity and the need for sustainable earth practices. Being a disciple of Jesus today is about respect for the earth. It is urgent and it requires behavioral change. As Al Gore says, its not just about changing your light bulbs, but also changing laws and being politically active. Discipleship is urgent, passionate, socially and politically engaged, and radical. The passion for ecological discipleship comes from a powerful sense of connection with the earth. Repent of living as if you are dominant over the earth. We’ve been down that road, and not only is it offensive but it doesn’t work. It leads only to destruction. Radical Discipleship Begins with Conscientization Become intimate with the earth. Liberation theology coined a phrase that is helpful here- conscientization. Remember that liberation theology saw discipleship as the work of liberating the poor and oppressed. Conscientization was the process of becoming informed or aware, particularly of ideologies that have become status quo. The work of liberators is to expose the bankruptcy of the status quo and point to a better way. Conscientization reveals even inconvenient truths and offers alternatives. The status quo ideology that relates to the earth is domination, or subjugation. Christianity has had as much to do with perpetuating this abusive ideology as any other force. Enough domination! Now its time for collaboration and deep connection with the earth. Consider your relationship with the earth in that context. How mindful are you of the earth and earth’s beauty, even aside from its usefulness to humans? There’s an exchange in Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” between the main character, Celie and a bar singer Shug- Shug is a naturalist, and very skeptical of the church. She says to Celie. “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” That’s not appropriate language for church, is it? Not according to the Santa Clausification of Christianity. But it is an appropriate discipleship phrase, because it’s a phrase of passionate indignance. It ticks God off when you don’t notice the beauty and wonder of nature. It ticks God off when you don’t see the wisdom of nature. It ticks God off when people aren’t informed about climate change and alternate energy sources. It ticks God off when people mindlessly perpetuate a status quo of domination. Reclaim your own sense of discipleship. Find the urgency. Become informed. Feel the passion. Follow your bliss. If not now, when? If not today, then what happens tomorrow? If not you, then who? If you live only for yourself, then who are you? You are related to the earth. Her future is your future. Live with the belief that your actions impact others and the earth, up to seven generations and beyond. Take responsibility for your part in the evolutionary drama called life. In so doing, you will be fulfilling the spirit of Jesus mission to be intimately related to all things, on all corners of the earth.
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