It kind of feels like we have stumbled backwards into a political system wherein every election is framed with the direst of stakes, which means, that I, we, all of us, have been at a constant fever pitch for ten years now. I feel like a sponge soaked through, having been submerged in vulgar rhetoric, awful condemnatory language, and grim prognostication since before I even started seminary. ...We have been teetering on the edge of what feels like the Book of Revelations cliff for a long time.
There are plenty of Revelations Christians out there, but Revelations doesn't feel like who I am; it doesn't feel like who the Episcopal church is; Revelations hardly shows up in the lectionary but for 9 times over three years! And in this apocalyptic fugue, I wonder if it has been hard to find a footing in our religious framework when we Episcopalians don't do apocalypse well, if at all.
The revelations-beast with seven heads and ten horns that has come up out of the sea to makes its company with us, the beast in the shape of a leopard with the claws of a bear and the mouth of a lion does not feel like the pet the Episcopal church would keep; it does not feel like the scripture that would focus my heart and mind for this time. So here are some others:
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From Jeremiah (29:6-7), Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
From Matthew (25:37-40), ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
From 1 John (4:20), 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
From Matthew (5:43-47), “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?...
From the Psalms (146:5-9),
Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! *
...6 Who gives justice to those who are oppressed,
*and food to those who hunger.
7 The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
*the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
8 The Lord loves the righteous; the Lord cares for the stranger;
*he sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked.
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You may be thinking to yourself, why is Fr. Ethan reading all of the scripture passages out of context to us we are just not feeling it right now, and I would say, you know what, I'm not feeling it either. And, the place of not feeling it right now, is precisely where Christianity finds its start. The place of terrible prognostication about the future, is exactly the moment in which these platitudes are written.
The words of our scripture, the heart of our Gospel, is not just reinforcement for a good moods-- in our worst moods, it is a reminder of who we are, it's a reminder of who we are called to be. These words are not really meant to be etched into a piece of driftwood and sold at Home Goods,, they are meant to be scratched into a cold dark stone wall, spray painted on the side of a burning building, scrawled on paper and corked in a bottle and tossed into the sea.
If it feels like gentle reassurances of scripture are inadequate at the moment, then I would simply offer the reminder that there are very few stories in the bible of people having a Good Day. And in fact, a lot of it recounts scenarios where the worst possible outcome happened. We had about ten good minutes of Adam and Eve before the wheels fall of the cart, and the whole rest of the bible is the story of God and God's people figuring out what to do with a cart and no wheels.
None of this is to give a sugarcoated chin up kid, or to say well Moses and Miriam had it worse, so stop complaining! Rather this is to say that if it feels hard to get out of bed in the morning, if it all feels too much, if you can't see a way forward for us, well, that is a fine starting place for Christianity. Look around at how much company you have here, look at how much company you have among our scripture protagonists. And if you reallyyy don't feel up for it, then let me tell you that that is alright. You know what Moses did first? He went for a walk. Jeremiah said why don't you go and work in your garden. Mary was sitting in her house and then she went to go visit her cousin. Noah sat idle on his boat for weeks. When Jesus found them, the disciples were all out fishing. We're not going to figure it out today, but what a time and a place to begin again.
For whatever it's worth, I wrote this sermon on election day. And I did that because I could not wrap my brain around how to preach a sermon that depended on an outcome, or non-outcome. The system we've set up for ourselves is shaped in such a way that when alls said and done, and alls counted, some 51% of voters will think we've just skirted disaster and 49% of voters will feel that we are barreling towards it. It unsettles me bad that any outcome leaves half of our country feeling doomed. And in our country, we've so few cultural resources to navigate this kind of dog-eat-dog system except the sentiment: cast first or be cast into the outer darkness. An election, it turns out, cannot solve for us the problem of one another. And a system where the half of us is rewarded with stability and well-being and the other half condemned to suffer, feels like a theology of sin and salvation, a theology of heaven and hell, that has really scary implications if we take it and run with it.
A theology or philosophy that frames equals parts winners and losers is a theology that authorizes vengeance and judgment and condemnation, is a theology that breeds competition and gloating, is a theology that disincentivizes reconciliation and mercy and grace. Unless there is an outer darkness that I have overlooked on the map, and unless we've bought a lot of tickets to send people there, then we are all stuck together and the result of an election does not absolve us of that burden. Prodigal Son and brother and father, we are stuck together! Cain and Abel and the Rich Man and Lazarus, we are stuck with each other! The men of the treasury and the widow with her mite, we are stuck together. We've all got to figure out what to do with each other. And you know, the Bible's got a lot to say about all that. Amen.
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