28-dec-08

Out of Control The Rev. Joseph Winston December 28, 2008

Sermon Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1 Our culture here in the United States prides itself on being in control. We can find this unwritten assumption in just about everything that we do. Take for example our foreign policy. We believe that we can control the actions of other countries to our benefit. We typically start by sending diplomats to the four corners of the globe where they argue our cause before the heads of state. If the cries of our diplomats are not heard, we do not loose heart. We have other potent weapons in our arsenal. Our first recourse is normally economic. We will not send the countries that disagree with us anything that we produce. If this step does not change their way of thinking, military action is then threatened. Here we have a wide range of options open to us. We might decide to support the opposition in 1

Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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hopes that we can topple the government that is hostile to us and then replace the government with one that favors us. The last resort is war. If some foreign country will not do what we want, then we can concentrate our military might on them and force them to act in our best benefits. This behavior that tries to directly influence the world around us for our own good is not limited to the interactions that the United States has with other countries. Far from it – We in this country firmly believe that we can adjust the economic engine that drives this country so that people continue to freely spend money that they simply do not have. Our federal treasury, the previous administration in Washington, and our upcoming leaders all share one common belief. The injection of unimaginable amounts of capital into the financial institutions, select automobile manufacturers, and an insurer will bring back our confidence in the market. They have even publicly predicted what will happen next. Normal people, like you and I, will go back to the market in droves. We will buy expensive new houses. We will purchase new cars every two years. We will even update our wardrobes. In their minds, all this borrowed money flowing through the market will bring health back to our ailing economy. Of course, none of these actions by Washington are free. They all have a tremendous cost. Our taxes will increase and our dollars are worth less. The reason why the United States acts like it does with the other countries and with the financial markets is that we firmly believe that we are in control of our own destiny. Perhaps this is best seen in our infatuation with youthfulness. The many tan and supple bodies in the advertisements we all see tell us that the 2

ideal age is someone in their twenties. Just like with the previous illustrations, a high cost must be paid for the illusion that we stay young forever. Today, it is not good enough to just keep the gray away. Instead, we now purchase drugs that help cover our balding heads. No longer do we welcome the natural decrease in libido that comes with aging. Rather, we keep up our flagging sexual drive by spending hundred of millions per year on little blue pills. We only want to see young people, so we hide our aged in retirement villages and in places that we would like to think are “homes.” If we are always twenty, then it is clear that we will never die. Unfortunately, our churches and cities are all too willing to buy in to this idea. We have moved cemeteries away from our churches and there even are cities that literally do not have any places to bury the dead. Unlike the United States and her citizens who think that they have power over all of creation, all of the named characters in today’s Gospel have no control over any aspect of their environment. The first people encountered in today’s Gospel are the Holy Family. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus have left their home in Nazareth and have made the one hundred mile journey to Jerusalem. This is not a simple sight seeing trip to see what work has been done by the Romans on the temple. It is not an excursion by Mary and Joseph to pick up presents from their relatives in Jerusalem. It has nothing to do with Joseph’s business. They are required to take this journey to Jerusalem and back. God has ordered it. Mary must bring an offering to the temple. The Law requires a burnt offering at the temple of a lamb along with either a turtle-dove or a pigeon thirty-three 3

days after she gives birth (Leviticus 12:6). The author of Luke tells us that the Holy Family offers two birds instead of a lamb and a bird (Luke 2:24). Their extreme poverty excuses them from needing to sacrifice a lamb (Leviticus 12:8). Another one who must take the trip to Jerusalem is Jesus. God’s Law makes a demand on Him also. All first-born males, whether human or animal, belong to the Lord (Numbers 18:15-18). Jesus must be taken to the temple. There, Joseph will buy Him from God. Even though this financial transaction is not explicitly listed in today’s Gospel reading, we can safely assume that Joseph paid the required five shekels that transferred the ownership of Jesus from God to Joseph because it is very clear that Mary and Joseph are observant Jews. While it could be argued that Mary and Jesus could have made the trip without Joseph, this discussion really does not make any sense. The trip between Nazareth and Jerusalem was dangerous. Not only were there robbers but the land was also occupied by foreign troops that cared little for the welfare of a poor woman. Mary and the month old infant Jesus needed the protection that Joseph brought. In that culture that was Israel, women could only interact with their family, other females, and their husband. Any significant contact with the outside world required a man. Because Joseph was alive, he was the only one who could talk to others like shopkeepers for food or innkeepers for a place to stay. Joseph too had to come to Jerusalem. The next named character in today’s Gospel lesson is Simeon. Unlike Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, none of God’s laws forced Simeon to be outside of the tem-

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ple waiting to see the Messiah.2 Simeon was there for another reason, something completely outside of his control. God had presented Simeon with the opportunity to see Jesus. Simeon found Jesus, just the same way that you and I have. He was brought to the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. The final actor with a name is Anna. She like Simeon had been given a vision by the Holy Spirit that Jesus would be at the temple. This also means that she has no control over the situation that unfolds before her. Without God’s Word, she would not know the infant Jesus from any other infant that happened to be in the outer gates of the temple.3 God led Anna to Jesus. What dramatically differentiates us from these characters is the way that we live. Today, we actually believe that we can we can master the entire universe.4 This concept, which is completely foreign to they way that Mary, Joseph, Anna, Simeon, and Jesus think and act, is what causes our pain. We can see this in our own lives. Some of us need to loose a few pounds and when we pull on our clothes, it is obvious that we have not changed for the better. Others of us would like to stop the drinking or the drugs. No matter how hard we try, it is just not happening. This breaks our heart. A common desire over 2

The Greek used here, ἱερόν, indicates the entire temple area, both inside and outside. Luke Timothy Johnson; S.J. Daniel J. Harrington, editor, The Gospel of Luke, Volume 3, Sacra Pagina, (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991), p. 55. Mary can only go into the outer portion of the temple (Leviticus 12:6). Thus, the translation needs to indicate that the meeting occurred in the place where women could enter. 3 If we can assume that Holladay is correct and it is the Holy Spirit that enables the prophet to speak (Acts 4:8; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 8:26, 29, 39; 10:19; 11:12; 13:2; 16:6-7; 19:21; 20:33; 21:4, 11), then it is not a leap to say that the Spirit brought her to see Jesus. Carl R. Holladay; James L. Mays, editor, Chap. Acts In ‘Harper’s Bible Commentary’, (Harper San Francisco, 1988), p. 1078. 4 Douglas John Hall, Lighten Our Darkness: Towards an Indigenous Theology of the Cross, Revised edition. (Academic Press, 2001), p. 85.

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the holidays is for families to get together and then to spend some quality time with each other. No matter how much we ask, no matter how much we badger, some of our own brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren will not sit down with us. Once again, there will be an empty chair at the table and it hurts. The unemployment lines have grown longer and we do not know when we will work again. Our country has the same problem. Neither the First nor Second World Wars silenced our dreams of controlling everything.5 We kept having successes in forcing our will on other nations, we kept people employed and our citizens could afford a house, and we developed technologies that allowed us to live long lives. These accomplishments and others have allowed our collective ego to grow so large that we no longer have room in our lives for God.6 We are out of control. It is painfully obvious that we are not in control. We no longer have the ability to make the world safe. The world is full of pirates that seize cargo at will, of terrorists that threaten our citizens here and abroad, and of rouge states that possess weapons of mass destruction. We cannot force the economy to do our bidding. We have been in a recession longer than most people will admit, Wall Street’s “best and brightest” have been unable to pull us out of the downward spiral we find ourselves in, and food pantry shelves are being stretched to the breaking point all over this nation. Despite our love affair with youth, we can do nothing to stop 5 6

Hall, Lighten Our Darkness, p. 5. Ibid., p. 15.

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aging. We all are getting older and one day each of us will die. The solution to this problem that faces us is straightforward but it is not easy. It makes sense but it is oh so hard to do. It is was God wants if we will let God do it. The answer to what ails us can be accurately summarized in the phrase, “Let God be God and humans be human.” This way out of the mess that we have created for ourselves requires faith, trust, and wisdom. We have to believe that God loves us so much that He will save us. We need to have confidence to God’s solution is correct. We have to know what work is God’s and what we are required to do. It might be useful to look at several examples. The United States is in love with twenty-somethings. This is unhealthy and against God’s will because not all of us are twenty. This statement is an act of faith. We believe that God has a plan for each of us. This sentence tells others that God has been faithful in the past and we know that will continue in the future. We trust God. We also know that we are not designed to be stuck at twenty. We have a life that normally ranges from an infant to old age. This is wisdom at work. Our pastor has left. An idea deeply rooted in our tradition is that, “Faith comes by hearing” (Isaiah 52:7). Even more to the point, belief comes from preachers that are sent by God (Romans 10:13-15). We take God at His Word and have faith the God will send us a new pastor. We trust that God will send us a preacher. Wisdom in this illustration is understanding who will work here at Light of Christ and who would be better at some other situation. 7

Recall the unconditional acceptance that you are given here at Light of Christ. We have no hard proof of the proclamation that God accepts us as we are. All we have is the stories that have been passed down to us that we have to do nothing to be saved. It is a risk that we all take that God really loves people like you and me. But we are willing to stake our future on what we have been told. This is our trust. We use wisdom when we retell these stories to those people that we meet. For some of us, it has been clear for a long time that the unbridled optimism that is part and parcel of the United States of America no longer makes sense. We only have to look around to see that we cannot control the world, we cannot control the economy, and we cannot control our age. Others of us have concluded that we are out of control more recently. It really does not matter when you reach this conclusion, the fact still remains that we are not in control. It is possible that in the upcoming weeks and months, more and more people will come to the same conclusion. We are not in control. Some people might be troubled and others could be upset when their imaginary world breaks down. We have a Word for them. It is the same Word that is given to you. God accepts you. “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”7

References Hall, Douglas John, Lighten Our Darkness: Towards an Indigenous Theology of 7

Philippians 4:7.

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the Cross, Revised edition. (Academic Press, 2001). Holladay, Carl R.; Mays, James L., editor, Chap. Acts In ‘Harper’s Bible Commentary’, (Harper San Francisco, 1988), pp. 1077–1118. Johnson, Luke Timothy; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., editor, The Gospel of Luke, Volume 3, Sacra Pagina, (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991).

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