The Church of St.
Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
July 19, 2020
Year A, Proper 11:
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 28:10-19a
Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-50,
36-43
The House of God, Under Construction
It’s
amazing to me that even after four or five months so many of you continue to
dial in for our daily conference call prayer services.
I
guess I sort of thought that a lot of us would’ve gotten tired of the services
by now, but instead many of you have mentioned that they have sustained you
during these difficult days – and, honestly, even with occasional static and
background noise and sometimes hearing my voice echo, our little services have
sustained me, too.
I
love hearing your prayers.
And,
I’ve also appreciated the chance to share so much scripture together, making
our way through long stretches of the Bible that we never hear on Sundays.
Some
of these passages are so beautiful and inspiring while others are full of
tongue-twisters (particularly difficult at 7:30am!) and others are confusing,
mysterious, and maybe even troubling.
For
example, there is a whole lot of slavery in the Bible.
Last
week a parishioner who calls into almost all of our phone services emailed me
because she was troubled by all of this talk about slaves, concerned about how
the descendants of enslaved people could possibly hear good news in these
passages.
In not so many
words, she asked how, in a time when we are insisting that Black Lives Matter,
I could read aloud these passages in my solemn priestly tone and called on me
to address this topic.
Sure enough, in
today’s gospel passage, in what’s often called the Parable of the Wheat and the
Weeds, Jesus speaks about slaves without any comment.
Actually, there is
no condemnation of slavery anywhere in the Bible, a fact that some in the past
used to justify their “ownership” of other human beings.
So, what to make
of all of this?
First, it’s
important to know that slavery in the world of the Bible was different from the
way Africans were enslaved by white people many centuries later.
In the ancient
world, slavery was not limited to a particular race or ethnicity and there was
no claim that slaves were in any way less than human.
Many slaves were
highly educated, sometimes better educated than their owners.
Some slaves were
in positions of authority and responsibility.
Some poor people
actually “sold themselves” into slavery, in the hope of improving their lot.
And, many slaves
could expect to eventually be freed with little or no taint from their former
status.
So, ancient
slavery was a lot different from the truly diabolical form of slavery practiced
in more recent times, with the many devastating social and economic effects
that we still feel and grapple with to this day.
And, yet, … it
sure feels like the authors of the Bible should have been able to see that the
idea of “owning” other human beings is just wrong, right?
And, we probably could
have avoided at least some suffering and tragedy if the Bible spoke clearly on
this issue – though, on the other hand, the Bible does say very clearly that we
shall not murder and that we should welcome the stranger and we must love our
neighbor - and we haven’t done such a hot job with all of that, have we?
So, about the
Bible.
We believe that
God inspired the Bible.
But, the Bible is
the product of God’s inspiration working through individuals and groups of people
who lived in particular times and places, people who had their own way of
seeing things - or not seeing things - people who took certain things
for granted as just the way life is.
So, there is a
tension in the Bible.
In one way, it is
tied to the time and place in which it was written.
But – and here’s
where God comes in - the Bible also points ahead to a very different future.
For example, in
today’s Old Testament lesson, we heard the famous story of Jacob’s Ladder.
While Jacob sleeps
he dreams of a ladder carrying angels between heaven and earth - and then he
encounters the Lord.
And, in the dream,
the Lord speaks only of the future – yes, a future when Jacob’s people possess
the land, but an even bigger future, an even harder to imagine future, when
Jacob’s descendants will bless all the families of the earth – and God promises
to be with Jacob and all of his many descendants right to the very end.
Jacob awakes from
his amazing dream and creates a little shrine on this holy spot, naming it
Bethel: the house of God.
There’s a lot of
trouble and heartache ahead for Jacob but in that dream he had a glimpse of the
future – he saw the house of God, under construction.
I have no doubt
that there is a lot of trouble and heartache ahead for us, too, but we also get
glimpses of God's future, – every now and then we get to see the house of
God, under construction.
I think that our
phone call prayer services have given us a glimpse of the future.
The services are
stripped of everything extra – it’s just brothers and sisters gathered together
to hear the words scripture with all of their tension, beauty, and challenge.
We are gathered
together to pray– so many prayers – for ourselves – our health – for our family
and friends – our country and our world – for individual people I’ve never met
and yet feel like I’ve come to know and care about through our prayers.
The house of God,
under construction.
And then there is
Triangle Park - or, after last Wednesday
afternoon, maybe we should rename it Bethel – the house of God.
For the past week
or two, we had been storing donated bikes and scooters here in Carr Hall, in
preparation for “Freewheeling Wednesday” when they would be distributed free of
charge to kids in the Triangle Park neighborhood.
If you know me,
you know it was easy for me to imagine all sorts of worst-case scenarios: there
won’t be enough bikes – fights will break out because two or more kids want the
same bike – it will be hard to keep the whole event organized and, especially,
safe – a real concern in a neighborhood where recently there has been an
increase in violence.
None of those
worst-case scenarios happened.
Instead, it was a
vision of the house of God under construction, as a rainbow of about 50 or 60
super-excited children got their bikes and scooters (I’m sure for many it was
their first, including the kid who was very apologetic after riding over my
foot!).
Later, in an
email, a boy named Remy wrote simply, “I want to thank you for my bike. I am
very happy.”
That afternoon, we
got to see the house of God under construction as parents looked delighted and
a little dazed by all the generosity and kindness in the park, by the patience
and devotion of volunteers including Monica Shaw and her Triangle Park team and
also Deacon Jill and her crew from DJ’s Free Market.
It was a vision of
the house of God, under construction, as people in this long-neglected
neighborhood enjoyed free food from local restaurants and there was even an ice
cream man, hired by us to give away ice cream to everybody!
It was so
beautiful I felt like Jacob waking from sleep in amazement, declaring, “How
awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God…”
The house of God, under construction.
So, yes, there is
a tension in the Bible.
In one way, it is
tied to the time and place in which it was written.
But, the Bible
also points ahead to a very different future.
God is leading us
to a future when the lion and the lamb will lay down together in peace, to a
promised land where it’s the poor and the mournful and the oppressed who will
be truly blessed – a future without weeds, or maybe a future when nothing and
no one is seen as a weed – a future that the great John Lewis fought for his
whole life - a future when there will no longer be Jew or Greek, no longer slave
or free, but only sisters and brothers, all adopted as God’s beloved children,
living together in the house of God.
Although in one
way limited by our human inability to see beyond our time and space, in another
way the Bible points ahead to a future still mostly beyond our sight, a time
when it would never even occur to anyone to enslave another human being – a
future for God and us that is being born even as we speak, as St. Paul writes,
“the whole creation groaning in labor pains until now.”
And, like Jacob,
and like all of us dialing in day after day, and like all of us at Triangle
Park the other day, if we keep our eyes open, every now and then we get to see
it, we get to see the house of God, under construction.
Amen.
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