The Citizens of Heaven Need to Speak Up

The Church of St. Paul & Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

March 17, 2019

Year C: The Second Sunday in Lent

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Psalm 27

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 13:31-35

The Citizens of Heaven Need to Speak Up

            The story of God and us really begins with Abram – soon to be Abraham - a faithful man who was asked by God to leave his home and travel to an unknown new land – a man who thought he and his wife would never have children of their own, yet God says that his descendants will be as numerous than the stars in the night sky.

            The story of God and us begins with God making a promise – a covenant – a contract – with Abraham and his many descendants – a promise made in the strange story we heard in today’s first lesson from Genesis.

            It seems that in the ancient world contracts were made by doing what we heard today: killing animals and cutting them in half.

            Then the two parties making the agreement would “cut the deal” by walking between these pieces, indicating the bloody consequences if either side broke the contract.

            Kind of gruesome, but it does get the point across, right?

            But, what we heard today isn’t just any regular contract between two people about land or money.

            This is a covenant between God and God’s people.

            So, notice what happens when God makes this covenant with Abraham – only God “walks” between the animal parts, not Abraham, because God knows very well that Abraham and his descendants – that we - will not be able to completely keep our end of the agreement.

We will break God’s Law – we will turn to other gods – we will reject the prophets sent to us – we will, from time to time, lose faith in the God who called Abraham to a new land, to a new way.

            But, since God made a one-sided contract with God’s people, God doesn’t ever give up on us.

No matter what, God always keeps God’s side of the bargain.

No matter what, as Jesus says so beautifully in today’s gospel lesson, God wants to gather us together, hold us close, as a hen gathers her chicks.

God will not give up on us  - will not let us go, no matter what.

And, that’s very good news, but…it doesn’t let us off the hook.

In today’s second lesson, St. Paul writes to the church in Philippi that their “citizenship is in heaven.”

That’s a surprising word to use, right? Citizenship. It would have caught the attention of people living in the Roman Empire two thousand years ago where citizenship or the lack of it made a big difference in people’s lives – just as citizenship or the lack of it makes a big difference for us living in the United States today.

And, just like American citizenship, our heavenly citizenship comes with many benefits and also many responsibilities, not in heaven but right here and right now.

As “heavenly citizens” living on earth we are expected – with God’s help – to try our best to keep our end of the deal with God – to love God and to love our neighbor – our Jewish neighbor, our Christian neighbor, our Muslim neighbor, our Hindu neighbor, our atheist neighbor, our neighbor who we really don’t like or trust – we are to strive to love them all.

Unfortunately, if you turn on the news for just a minute or two or even just walk down Bergen Avenue, it’s clear that we’re not really doing such a great job of keeping our contract with God, not doing such a great job of meeting the responsibilities of our heavenly citizenship.

It’s easy to get discouraged.

But, God doesn’t give up on us, so we must not give up on ourselves.

As I’ve thought about how we can respond to the difficult times we’re living in, I keep returning to Baptism.

We Christians gain our heavenly citizenship through Baptism – that’s our own little citizenship ceremony – and at each Baptism we make and renew important promises, including the promise to proclaim the Good News of Christ in what we say and what we do.

I bet that most of us would say that deeds are more difficult and more important than words. Just think of the expressions we use:

 “Words are cheap.”

  “Actions speak louder than words.”

We criticize people who are “all talk and no action.”

There’s truth to all of that – and if you’ve been here more than ten minutes you know very well that I’m very much about doing – I’m always trying to get us to do more - to serve more people – and that’s not going to change – but I think, especially these days, words are at least as important – and at least as difficult – as deeds.

I began writing today’s sermon on Friday morning after the news broke of the terrorist massacre in New Zealand where, as you know, yet another angry and armed man opened fire on worshipers – in this case attacking two mosques – killing 50 people and injuring some 20 more.

This time it was New Zealand and mosques, while not long ago it was a synagogue in Pittsburgh and an African-American church in Charleston.

One of the things that these horrific incidents have in common is that before the unspeakable violence there were words – ugly words and hateful words and fearful words - words that in a civilized society should have been unthinkable and definitely unspeakable – but in the cesspools of the Internet and among hateful extremists here and abroad – and, yes, among politicians who know better but cynically stir up hate to win applause and votes – the unthinkable and the unspeakable are thought and spoken more and more.

It can be a really short trip from word to deed, so, no surprise, there are some twisted men who put these ugly words into terrible action.

I know most of would rather not – I know most of us would rather look away - but I don’t think anything is going to change – and, actually, things are likely to get much worse - unless we heavenly citizens start to speak up.

If we’re scared, we have one another and we know we have a God who always keeps promises.

But, it’s time – it’s long past time - for us to use our words – beautiful words and loving words and courageous words.

After all, as the theologian I live with reminded me, in the beginning was the Word.

So, we’re called to speak up about what we experience right here in our beautiful church.

We’re not perfect by any means and we’re not always as welcoming to people who are a little different – who rub us the wrong way – who don’t fit into our little church cliques – but, for the most part, this diverse group of heavenly citizens gets along pretty well, proving that it really is possible for us to love one another, despite our many differences.

We’re called to speak up – and now I’m talking especially to my white brothers and sisters – we are called to speak up when we hear people spewing racist and hateful garbage – this could be among our own families and friends or at work or school or on social media – but we are called to speak up and say this is wrong and this is disgusting and this is most definitely not the way of God and I want no part of it.

We’re called to speak up in our communities – to speak up with other people of goodwill.

After the massacre at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, I was asked to speak at the rally held down at City Hall, representing the Christian community.

I really felt the weight of this huge responsibility.

I speak in public often enough so I don’t usually get too nervous – but I was very anxious that day – worried that I wasn’t eloquent enough or wise enough - worried that my words wouldn’t be right for this somber occasion – worried that I would say the wrong thing and accidentally do more harm than good.

I agonized over every word in my speech. In the end, I think it went OK but the truth is all I really had to say was this:

 Hating certain groups of people and slaughtering innocents is never the way of God.

It’s really as simple as that. But it’s not enough just to think it or to believe it. We have to say it, too.

The story of God and us – the story of the divine hen and her human chicks - begins long ago with God making a covenant – a one-sided contract promising to never give up on us, to never let go of us, no matter what.

We are so blessed – but we are not let off the hook.

And today in our broken and angry and heavily armed world, as heavenly citizens it is our responsibility to use both our words and our deeds to love God and to love our neighbor, all of our neighbors.

May it be so.