Following the Tracks of the Divine (or How to Find God. . . )
From Malachi 2:17-3:4 and Jeremiah 22:1-5, 13-16
6
December 2015—Justice Sunday
One of Clivie’s favorite Sesame Street specials is about the cowmonster pair—Elmo and Telly—who help Little Bo Peep find her . . . cow. They set off following tracks. They see tracks of a bird, a raccoon, a bear, and a moose—before they find the cow tracks—and the cow. It’s a process of deduction and elimination—looking at the size and the shape and the location of the tracks. . . .
It’s not unlike what we must consider as we prepare our hearts during the Advent Season. As we eagerly anticipate the inbreaking of God’s goodness and mercy in the world —as we hope for the miraculous birth of peace and justice in our lives and all around us— as we seek to find and follow after the tracks of the Divine. . . .
What size and shape does God take in the world? In what specific situations and circumstances might we find God? How might we put ourselves on the right track of following after this God of goodness and mercy, peace and justice?
And even more—once we find or experience that stronghold of God’s presence—is there a way we might we tether ourselves to it, so that even as we move and change and wonder off in various directions, we might be able to find our way back to that stronghold of God’s presence—especially when times get tough and when our world seems hostile at best?
Some of you may be familiar with the old practice used by farmers on the Great Plains who—at the first sign of a blizzard—would run a rope from their back door out to the barn. They all knew stories of people who had wandered off and frozen to death—having lost sight of home in a whiteout—while still in their own backyards. Their rope to the barn kept them connected to their stronghold—come what may.
The Quaker teacher and writer Parker Palmer talks about the blizzards that swirl around us in these days. They all have the capacity to disorient us and send us wondering away on a false trail—far from our spiritual stronghold—lost and bewildered. These blizzards confront us in the form of economic injustice, ecological devastation, physical and spiritual violence, and the belief that war is the justifiable answer to all that ails us. They swirl within us as fear and frenzy, greed and deceit, and indifference to the suffering of others.
How do we find God—and source our lives from God’s presence—in the midst of all this? How do we maintain our moral bearing while facing the constant barrage of violence and news of violence; displacement, disinterest, and disorientation? Has our human hunger for peace and justice, truth and love and grace been eclipsed and lost its power to guide our lives?
I have to believe this is not the case—even when blizzards come more often than we’d like. God seeks us, just as we seek God. And Jeremiah tells us that finding God might be as simple as eating and drinking and doing justice.
To deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. To act justly and to do no violence toward the alien, the orphan, and the widow. To shed no innocent blood in this place. To be present with the poor and needy.
Is not this to know me? Is this not to see me? Is this not to be mine?
This is the God of Justice—who is coming—who is with us now—and who always has been. Malachi announces the coming of God’s messenger to prepare the way for this God of Justice. And those first hearers were delighted. And so are we. We all have a deep longing for God’s justice—right?! But this justice will require something of us. It won’t be all warm fuzzies and hot chocolate. Malachi tells us that God’s messenger will come “like a refiner’s fire” to purify us. . . .
Will we be able to stand it? Are we willing to do the work?
I mean the work of justice can be hard. Mountains must be laid low. Rough places must be made passable. Kind of leveling ground for a peace garden?! Putting together a Fair Trade Holiday Faire? We have to set ourselves to the task of following God’s tracks into a world utterly rearranged by the necessities of just, sustainable, and compassionate living…. Before we blindly give ourselves over to the wild acquisitions and social obligations of Christmas, we must think about how we are willing to give ourselves over to God’s demands for justice. How are we going to repent and repair our world so that justice can make room for joy? More about that next week! That place where justice thrives is God’s plumb line, true north, and deep anchor. That is where we need to tie our rope.
Do our lives and the excesses of the holidays honor our relationship with God and all of God’s creation? Who made the shoes we bought on Black Friday? Was it a child? Who is enriched by our consumption? Who is made poor? Are we ready to answer for the ways in which our purchases and daily choices disrupt and damage our relationships with people around the world?
And just how are we treating people these days? How are we valuing human life and human beings—the far flung children of God—even the least among us who are members of God’s family?
Just a couple of weeks ago, leadership of the Christian Church (DOC) and the United Church of Christ—including Sharon Watkins, GMP; the UCC GMP; and representatives of Home Missions and Global Ministries—issued a joint statement deploring and mourning “the senselessness that leads people to believe that violence will bring peace and justice, much less honor or blessing.” They called upon churches, people of faith, and political leaders in this country and all over the world to treat the millions of refugees from the Syrian war humanely and justly—and to welcome them—citing faith commitments to “love the sojourner” (Deuteronomy 10:19); to treat “the foreigner residing among you… as your native-born” (Leviticus 19:34)—and I would add, as Jeremiah says, to treat the alien, orphan, and widow with justice—and to consider the fact that Jesus was a refugee in Egypt as a child.
Acknowledging our country’s history of institutionalized discrimination and the systematic dehumanization of whole communities, our church leaders’ statement calls us to something greater. They call us to be a merciful and caring community—seeking justice and honoring every person—and standing up and shouting out when such a vision is challenged or violated. All of these are tracks of the Divine.
And as we consider ways we do and do not value human life, we are met with the gun violence that once again rattles our hearts. How many of you want to yell out with me, “Where is the justice, God?!” There’s innocent blood everywhere! But the thing of it is, I believe God asks us the same question. . . .
I thought it was quite powerful that for the first time in 95 years, the New York Times ran an editorial on its front page yesterday. The headline read “End the Gun Epidemic in America.”
Here is part of that article:
“All decent people feel sorrow and righteous fury about the latest slaughter of innocents, in California. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are searching for motivations, including the vital question of how the murderers might have been connected to international terrorism. That is right and proper.
“But motives do not matter to the dead in California, nor did they in Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut and far too many other places. The attention and anger of Americans should also be directed at the elected leaders whose job is to keep us safe but who place a higher premium on the money and political power of an industry dedicated to profiting from the unfettered spread of ever more powerful firearms.
“It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection. America’s elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let’s be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism….”
In this time—as much or more than any other—we need Emmanuel, God with us, the incarnation of justice in our world. We need justice to be born and to grow and to live among us. To teach us and challenge us and help us to see beyond ourselves to others in deep and desperate need.
Our prayers may not stop the killing or bring back the innocent or quell the hatred and greed that swirl into blizzards all around us. But our prayers and our solidarity can break the silence of heartbreak and despair. They can shed light and create powerful bonds. They can empower us to act with justice and to encourage others to do the same. They can point us in direction of offering healing in a wounded world. Our prayers can help us secure a rope to the stronghold of God’s presence and God’s justice so that we can survive blizzards without losing our hope or our way.
And with justice, peace becomes a real possibility. And joy starts to peek around the corner!
Amen.
December 2015—Justice Sunday
One of Clivie’s favorite Sesame Street specials is about the cowmonster pair—Elmo and Telly—who help Little Bo Peep find her . . . cow. They set off following tracks. They see tracks of a bird, a raccoon, a bear, and a moose—before they find the cow tracks—and the cow. It’s a process of deduction and elimination—looking at the size and the shape and the location of the tracks. . . .
It’s not unlike what we must consider as we prepare our hearts during the Advent Season. As we eagerly anticipate the inbreaking of God’s goodness and mercy in the world —as we hope for the miraculous birth of peace and justice in our lives and all around us— as we seek to find and follow after the tracks of the Divine. . . .
What size and shape does God take in the world? In what specific situations and circumstances might we find God? How might we put ourselves on the right track of following after this God of goodness and mercy, peace and justice?
And even more—once we find or experience that stronghold of God’s presence—is there a way we might we tether ourselves to it, so that even as we move and change and wonder off in various directions, we might be able to find our way back to that stronghold of God’s presence—especially when times get tough and when our world seems hostile at best?
Some of you may be familiar with the old practice used by farmers on the Great Plains who—at the first sign of a blizzard—would run a rope from their back door out to the barn. They all knew stories of people who had wandered off and frozen to death—having lost sight of home in a whiteout—while still in their own backyards. Their rope to the barn kept them connected to their stronghold—come what may.
The Quaker teacher and writer Parker Palmer talks about the blizzards that swirl around us in these days. They all have the capacity to disorient us and send us wondering away on a false trail—far from our spiritual stronghold—lost and bewildered. These blizzards confront us in the form of economic injustice, ecological devastation, physical and spiritual violence, and the belief that war is the justifiable answer to all that ails us. They swirl within us as fear and frenzy, greed and deceit, and indifference to the suffering of others.
How do we find God—and source our lives from God’s presence—in the midst of all this? How do we maintain our moral bearing while facing the constant barrage of violence and news of violence; displacement, disinterest, and disorientation? Has our human hunger for peace and justice, truth and love and grace been eclipsed and lost its power to guide our lives?
I have to believe this is not the case—even when blizzards come more often than we’d like. God seeks us, just as we seek God. And Jeremiah tells us that finding God might be as simple as eating and drinking and doing justice.
To deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. To act justly and to do no violence toward the alien, the orphan, and the widow. To shed no innocent blood in this place. To be present with the poor and needy.
Is not this to know me? Is this not to see me? Is this not to be mine?
This is the God of Justice—who is coming—who is with us now—and who always has been. Malachi announces the coming of God’s messenger to prepare the way for this God of Justice. And those first hearers were delighted. And so are we. We all have a deep longing for God’s justice—right?! But this justice will require something of us. It won’t be all warm fuzzies and hot chocolate. Malachi tells us that God’s messenger will come “like a refiner’s fire” to purify us. . . .
Will we be able to stand it? Are we willing to do the work?
I mean the work of justice can be hard. Mountains must be laid low. Rough places must be made passable. Kind of leveling ground for a peace garden?! Putting together a Fair Trade Holiday Faire? We have to set ourselves to the task of following God’s tracks into a world utterly rearranged by the necessities of just, sustainable, and compassionate living…. Before we blindly give ourselves over to the wild acquisitions and social obligations of Christmas, we must think about how we are willing to give ourselves over to God’s demands for justice. How are we going to repent and repair our world so that justice can make room for joy? More about that next week! That place where justice thrives is God’s plumb line, true north, and deep anchor. That is where we need to tie our rope.
Do our lives and the excesses of the holidays honor our relationship with God and all of God’s creation? Who made the shoes we bought on Black Friday? Was it a child? Who is enriched by our consumption? Who is made poor? Are we ready to answer for the ways in which our purchases and daily choices disrupt and damage our relationships with people around the world?
And just how are we treating people these days? How are we valuing human life and human beings—the far flung children of God—even the least among us who are members of God’s family?
Just a couple of weeks ago, leadership of the Christian Church (DOC) and the United Church of Christ—including Sharon Watkins, GMP; the UCC GMP; and representatives of Home Missions and Global Ministries—issued a joint statement deploring and mourning “the senselessness that leads people to believe that violence will bring peace and justice, much less honor or blessing.” They called upon churches, people of faith, and political leaders in this country and all over the world to treat the millions of refugees from the Syrian war humanely and justly—and to welcome them—citing faith commitments to “love the sojourner” (Deuteronomy 10:19); to treat “the foreigner residing among you… as your native-born” (Leviticus 19:34)—and I would add, as Jeremiah says, to treat the alien, orphan, and widow with justice—and to consider the fact that Jesus was a refugee in Egypt as a child.
Acknowledging our country’s history of institutionalized discrimination and the systematic dehumanization of whole communities, our church leaders’ statement calls us to something greater. They call us to be a merciful and caring community—seeking justice and honoring every person—and standing up and shouting out when such a vision is challenged or violated. All of these are tracks of the Divine.
And as we consider ways we do and do not value human life, we are met with the gun violence that once again rattles our hearts. How many of you want to yell out with me, “Where is the justice, God?!” There’s innocent blood everywhere! But the thing of it is, I believe God asks us the same question. . . .
I thought it was quite powerful that for the first time in 95 years, the New York Times ran an editorial on its front page yesterday. The headline read “End the Gun Epidemic in America.”
Here is part of that article:
“All decent people feel sorrow and righteous fury about the latest slaughter of innocents, in California. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are searching for motivations, including the vital question of how the murderers might have been connected to international terrorism. That is right and proper.
“But motives do not matter to the dead in California, nor did they in Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut and far too many other places. The attention and anger of Americans should also be directed at the elected leaders whose job is to keep us safe but who place a higher premium on the money and political power of an industry dedicated to profiting from the unfettered spread of ever more powerful firearms.
“It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection. America’s elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let’s be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism….”
In this time—as much or more than any other—we need Emmanuel, God with us, the incarnation of justice in our world. We need justice to be born and to grow and to live among us. To teach us and challenge us and help us to see beyond ourselves to others in deep and desperate need.
Our prayers may not stop the killing or bring back the innocent or quell the hatred and greed that swirl into blizzards all around us. But our prayers and our solidarity can break the silence of heartbreak and despair. They can shed light and create powerful bonds. They can empower us to act with justice and to encourage others to do the same. They can point us in direction of offering healing in a wounded world. Our prayers can help us secure a rope to the stronghold of God’s presence and God’s justice so that we can survive blizzards without losing our hope or our way.
And with justice, peace becomes a real possibility. And joy starts to peek around the corner!
Amen.