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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Power of Peace


This is a sermon based on Matthew 3:1-12 and Isaiah 11:1-10 (the lectionary readings for the second week in Advent, year A).  Enjoy!


It’s a little alarming for us
        in this season of soft lights and kind words,
             to come face-to-face with a character like John                  the Baptist.

In the season of Advent,
        we prefer to hear about Mary and Joseph,
            about messages delivered by angels,
            about the preparation for an important birth in a humble place.
Yet every Advent, we are confronted with a reminder about
        this strange, almost creepy contemporary of Jesus.
John is alarming in every aspect of his character:
        he wears clothes of camel’s hair
            reminiscent of the wild clothing of Elijah.
        he eats locusts flavored with honey – a food of the scavenging poor.
        his location is concerning,
            he doesn’t set up shop in the city – speaking his word to the masses
                      he dwells in the wilderness.
        he has an alarming message:
                     it is full of condemnation.
                        “you brood of vipers,”
                        “the chaff will burn in the unquenchable fire,”
                        “the ax is set at the bottom of the tree,”
                        “you will be baptized in fire”

It’s a strange time of year to be hearing words of condemnation and judgment.
        It’s a strange time of year to be told to repent.
        It's a strange time of year to think about judgment.

Our churches are meant to stand as safe-havens in the world.
            This is a place where we are invited to feel at home
                        this is a place where we are welcomed
                        no matter who we are
                        and no matter what we have done.
            with this, comes an assumption that it is here where judgments are placed aside.
            So it is a little jarring to hear John saying repent.
Is John telling the church to be a place of judgment?
            sometimes it seems so – when we consider the way the church
                        has behaved throughout history.

Yet the words of Matthew 7 ring in my ear:
            Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.
            For with the judgment you make you will be judged
            And the measure you give will be the measure you get.
John is not telling us that we need to be judgers,
            his message is all about repentance.



There was once a holiday in South Africa called The Day of the Vow.
            The vow was taken in the 1800’s during the war
                        between white colonialists and the black Zulus.
            On the eve of a big battle, the besieged whites took a public vow
                        that if God helped them live, they would celebrate that day for                                        generations.

Generations later, after whites took control of the land
            and implemented a system of apartheid, or segregation
            every December 16, whites would teach their children to celebrate that victory,
                        often with violence.


Letlapa Mphalele recalls growing up in this horrible reality        Every December 16, whites would come into his                village
 and beat up any Africans they could find on the streets.

As Letlapa grew up, he and his friends decided to take December 16 back for themselves.
            This day would be the beginning of their armed                                   revolt against apartheid.
        
He quickly became director of a violent movement.
            If blacks were gunned down by whites, he and his fighters
                        would kill white policemen.
Violence mounted and, on a warm October night,
            white soldiers killed five black South African children sleeping in their home.
            So Letlapa ordered the shooting of white civilians at Heidelberg Tavern in Cape                  Town.

One of the four people randomly killed was Lyndi Fourie.
            Lyndi’s mother, Jenn received a phone message upon returning to her home                    that day telling her that her daughter had been killed.

Hatred was felt on both sides
Letlapa felt that the end result was a necessary retaliation
                        for the deaths of the five children his community had buried.
                        that now the whites were going to suffer the way blacks had suffered.
         Jenn Fourie prayed at her daughter’s funeral
                        saying that her daughter had been killed at the hands of evil men
                                    that Letlape was the devil incarnate.

6 months later, Nelson Mandela was elected president,
            and he ended apartheid in South Africa.
            December 16 was renamed The Day of Reconciliation.

Now, a country of people who had been killing each other for generations
            had to look in each other’s eyes and say sorry.
            As part of this process, people who had committed terrible acts
                        under apartheid
            came together to stand before a Truth and Reconciliation Commission
-which was headed by Desmond Tutu-
                        to confess all their crimes and ask for forgiveness.
            But Letlapa wouldn’t go, because he did not believe he was a criminal
                        for doing what was right.

Jenn was heartbroken at Letlape’s refusal,
            so she decided to personally confront him at a press conference.
            She stood up, identified herself, and accused him of trivializing reconciliation.
Letlapa explained his side of the story;
            that his fighters were responding to the crimes of decades of subjugation.
            Lyndi’s death was cast in the light of generations of painful loss.
                        Jenn had never seen things from Letlapa’s perspective.
            Letlapa approached Jenn and shook hands with her in a traditional African way
                        showing deep respect.
                        and Jenn forgave Letlapa.

Letlape never said he was sorry, but not because he wasn’t sorry.
            In his culture, it was his actions that mattered more than his words,
            so he invited Jenn to speak at his homecoming celebration.
            Letlapa had not been home as a free man in over 16 years.
            At the homecoming, Jenn apologized on behalf of her ancestors
                        for what they had done to Letlapa’s people.
                        Not only was she applauded, she was given a new name: Peladee 
                                    which means mother of Africa. (2)
 
These two people have found peace.
On the website for the foundation created for Lyndi Fourie
            Her mother and the man who ordered her murder                 stand side by side. (2)
The road to peace was not short or easy,
            the road to peace required repentance,
                        it required forgiveness,
                        it required reconciliation.


John’s biggest purpose, and the reason he is so crucial for Advent,
        is because he points the way for the one who is coming – Jesus.
        And Jesus enters into the world as God incarnate
        bringing the most astonishing combination of acceptance and admonition. (3)
What we discover at Advent and Christmas
        is not only are we cherished and accepted for who we are,
        but we are also responsible for what we do.
God loves us enough to care about what we do
            to care about our lives, to have expectations for us.

This does not mean that our expectations for ourselves
        or for each other
        necessarily line up with what God expects of us.
            In fact the opposite is probably more often true.

But the fact that God loves us enough to care about what we do
        and sends John to call us into better lives
        and sends Jesus into the world to teach and guide us
            is an incredible testament to God’s mercy.


There’s a youtube video that went viral a few years ago.
        The video is called simply “Dog, cat, and rat.”
        The gist of the video is that a man has a rat
        that rides on the back of a cat
        that rides on the back of a dog.
            all, seemingly, by choice.
                        I know it sounds more like a Dr. Suess poem, but there they are,
                        like the musicians of Bremen.
          The video has over 10 million views.
It seems we are fascinated by the idea of animals living in peace.


We see this in Isaiah’s prophecy.
        To indicate the extent of God’s powerful peace,
            Isaiah uses the cooperation of animals
        The wolf and the lamb,
        The calf and the lion
        The leopard and the baby goat.
The reason we are drawn to these animal videos
        and the reason that Isaiah’s image of the holy mountain is so compelling
        is because these do not indicate what is normal.
The wolf usually doesn’t hang out with the lamb.
The lion and the fatling don’t lie down together,
        and the rat never rides on the back of the cat
        who never rides on the back of the dog.
This departure from what appears to be reality is intriguing
        because it gives us hope.


Nelson Mandela died on Thursday of this week.
        After spending his early life fighting for the end of apartheid,
        the middle part of his life in a jail cell,
        and the last part of his life destroying a racialist system and bringing about peace,
            this man is being recognized for his achievements.
He was elected president of a tumultuous country.
        He had lots of pressure to retaliate against those who imprisoned him.
               To return evil for evil.
        But that's not what he did.
        In fact, at his inauguration he invited the guards who kept him in prison,
             to sit in the front row.
      Because nothing is more humbling than receiving forgiveness
            when you don't feel you've earned it.

Nelson Mandela understood the peace process.
        He understood that the way for two people to move from hatred for one another
            to mutual love and respect,
                        is through repentance and forgiveness.
           It requires asking God for forgiveness,
            asking each other for forgiveness.
         Because once we forgive each other, once we are that vulnerable with each other,
           we understand each other better. Peace can become a reality.

                    that is the power of repentance an reconciliation, 
                    that is the power of peace.


What we do in Advent is important:
        the hymns we sing
        the prayers we pray
        the ways we prepare our hearts and minds for Christmas.
These things really do matter.
Our repentance is important because it prepares us to                welcome God's peace.
         It prepares our souls to embody God's world.


So we approach this Advent season with longing,
        with anticipation,
        maybe, even, with a little apprehension,

but knowing that a shoot shall come out of the dead stump of Jesse,
        into a dead and dying world,
        and he will be Jesus, God’s son.
        and he will be called the Prince of Peace.


AMEN.


(1) Story taken from radio show Snap Judgment episode #314 (August 1, 2013)
(3) Feasting on the Word. Year A, Volume 1.

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