The First United Methodist Church of Napa, CA
May 30, 2010
Peace with Justice Sunday

Scripture Readings:

Hebrew Scriptures – Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31¹

¹Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? ²On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; ³beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: ⁴“To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live. …. ²²The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. ²³Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. ²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. ²⁵Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—²⁶when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. ²⁷When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, ²⁸when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, ²⁹when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, ³⁰then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, ³¹rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

Gospel Lesson – John 16: 12-15²

¹²“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

“Rest in the Grace of the World.³”

Peace with Justice Sunday is one of the Special Sundays of our church. A portion of our offering today supports programs that advocate peace and justice – not just here at home but all around the world. Peace with justice is a faithful expression of the shalom we find revealed all throughout the Bible – and as some of you well know, it’s at the heart of my own theology and the way that I’ve come to understand the nature of God. The Peace with Justice program, then, aims to make wholeness, health, harmony, well-being, peace …shalom visible and active in people’s lives and in their communities by setting people free from bondage – of any kind.

Peace with justice, though, only will be celebrated in all of its fullness when all people have access to adequate jobs, housing, education, food, health care, income support and clean water – indeed, when creation itself celebrates life and is no longer choked by poisons – of any kind.

The transition that we marked last Sunday, Pentecost – from the companionship and guidance of a living, breathing Jesus to being fully animated by the power of the Holy Spirit – puts just as much responsibility onto our shoulders, now, as it did those first disciples who ran away in terror, at first, seeing him crucified. And yet Christianity – the meaning of their three-year experience with Jesus – was now theirs to discover, theirs to create. Apart from those three years of perplexing memories, they were the same Jews that they’d always been – or so they must’ve thought. The power that Jesus came to declare was then let loose in them; and now, God help us, it’s been passed on to us to discover, re-create or leave it unformed.

Those first disciples remained Jews in the deeper sense that they had to go on living in the presence of God’s apparent absence. So do we. Our messiah has come, too, but then he’s left us again. Some, more conservative, Christians await “the second coming” as if it were supposed to be a physical return of the flesh-and-blood Jesus or maybe the one who will be the bringer of Judgment Day. But so many generations have come and gone without that happening that we might be better off to consider that the reshaping of creation has now been left up to us! What have we done to help shape the Kingdom of God that was at the heart of Jesus’ message?

The United Methodist Church at least has had something to say about what that Kingdom ought to look like. Our denomination has declared that peace with justice can only be celebrated, again, when all people have equal access to adequate jobs, housing, education, food, health care, income support and clean water. We, as a church, will further celebrate the mission that Jesus has left up to us when structures and systems that reflect economic exploitation, war, political oppression and cultural domination no longer exist.⁴

Earlier this month the Peace with Justice Coordinator’s from United Methodist Annual Conferences all across our nation met in Washington D.C. at the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill.  Did any of you even know that there was such a building? In fact it’s the only non-governmental building on the Hill.  In 1923 the United Methodist Women raised 70% of the $650,000 that it cost back then to build it. Around the rotunda of that building are two scriptures from the Book of Micah: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares” and “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”⁵

At the time the building was constructed (Some of you here may be old enough to remember!) there were two powerful social movements involving people of faith: the Temperance Movement and the Labor Reform or Social Gospel Movement.  Most of us know about the temperance movement, and the United Methodist Women’s involvement in it, but many are not aware that the Social Creed of the Methodist Episcopal Church came out of Labor Reform and the Social Gospel Movement that led the church to declare its support for three things: abolition of child labor, one day off in seven for workers, and a “living wage” in every industry.⁶

Last year, in a pastoral letter that our Council of Bishops entitled “God's Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action,” they said this to us:

God’s creation is in crisis. We, the bishops of The United Methodist Church, cannot remain silent while God’s people and God’s planet suffer.  This beautiful natural world is a loving gift from God, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, God has entrusted its care to all of us, but we have turned our backs on God and on our responsibilities.  Our neglect, selfishness and pride have fostered:
    •    pandemic poverty and disease,
    •    environmental degradation, and
    •    the proliferation of weapons and violence.⁷ 

These, obviously, ought to remain of great concern to us all.

And in case you think that’s enough meddling for a church to do, consider the stances that The United Methodist Church has taken in reference to the inflammatory issue of immigration. The Interfaith Immigration Coalition⁸ is standing with that seven-year-old girl who gave voice to the reality of our country’s broken immigration system by asking First Lady Michelle Obama if her undocumented mother will be deported. Her simple question powerfully underscored the very real tragedy that parents are being torn away from their children as we wait for Congress to pass immigration reform.

“It is immoral that little children are carrying the burden of our broken immigration policies in this country,” said United Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño of the Desert Southwest Conference. Bishop Carcaño pointed out that by working hard on comprehensive immigration reform President Obama has an opportunity to literally save the lives of and inspire an entire generation of children. “To not do so jeopardizes the future of these children and will leave them believing that justice has been lost in this country,” she said.⁹

All throughout our Bible we see evidence that people have believed that we are called by God to welcome the traveler, the wanderer, the visitor. We also see the good news that comes to those who practice hospitality toward those strangers that come their way. As affirmed by our General Conference in 2008, we believe:

There is theologically and historically an implied nature of mutuality in migration. Both the migrant and the native are meant to benefit from migration. Welcoming the migrant is not only an act of mission, it is an opportunity to receive God’s grace. ¹⁰

As people who believe that we’ve received the blessings of the grace of God, you and I – all of us here – are called to engage in justice on behalf of those who continue to be rejected and oppressed. At that same 2008 General Conference it was stated that, as United Methodists, we believe that,

Jesus’ presence on earth initiated the Kingdom reality of a new social order based on love, grace, justice, inclusion, mercy and egalitarianism, which was meant to replace the old order, characterized by nepotism, racism, classism, sexism and exclusion. The broken immigration system in the United States and the xenophobic responses to migrants reflect the former social order. The calling of the people of God is to advocate for the creation of a new immigration system that reflects Jesus’ beloved community.¹¹

We all too often forget: we are a nation of immigrants. “Jesus’ beloved community” can never be realized when immigrants continue to live in fear and are subjected to oppressive laws and practices. Again, throughout our history as a nation, immigrants have come to the United States to be reunited with their families, to find employment to support their families, or to seek refuge from persecution, and yet, they often work the most difficult jobs for unfair wages and in unsafe conditions. And documented immigrants live with the same fear as undocumented immigrants because they’re not immune to facing suspicion and possible detention based solely on the color of their skin or the accent of their English. All of this, of course, has recently resulted in the passage of Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona in April.¹²

And then there’s one of the major stories still dominating the news, and that is the worsening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The “top-kill” procedure failed and the spill is growing, with the first oil now washing into the Louisiana coast marshlands to the extent that fishing is now prohibited along 61,000 square miles off the coastline of Louisiana – that’s ¼ of the entire Gulf coast. Fears are that the oil will reach the Florida Keys, then enter the Gulf Stream, and even begin to move up the East Coast. This deepening disaster simply underscores the need for real energy and climate legislation that can begin to wean us from our addiction to oil and other fossil fuels. One significant part of such legislation is new efforts to encourage buildings that are more energy efficient – “green” buildings – even including “green” churches.

So I continue to find it astounding that that neo-conservative broadcaster, Glenn Beck, still views all of our efforts in this area as a dangerous form of socialism – as, it seems, it is with everything that he doesn’t agree with politically. He said, just this week, that “churches are being used by progressives to help bring about the fundamental transformation of America.”¹³ But then we don’t call that socialism, we like to call it stewardship of God’s creation. “Care of Creation” has, in fact, become a mainstream concern among Evangelical, Catholic, and Mainline churches alike – especially for the new generation of Christians.

If caring for creation, trying to find ways to alleviate poverty, and fixing our broken immigration system are part of the “fundamental transformation” of the church that Beck’s complaining about, then, yes, churches are being used to help bring about fundamental transformation – but they’re being “used” in service to a biblical vision, not just a political one.

I want to share with you all an email that I received from our missionary, Katherine Parker, that came earlier this month; she entitled it, simply, “Economic Justice in Cambodia.” She begins with a quick hello and that the heat still lingered as they waited for enough rain to start plowing; but then she says this:

At our Theology of Development training for pastors last week, I was overwhelmed when the pastors started connecting the concepts to small practical actions.  It is so important for our pastors to have fellowship time, to study together and compare notes about what makes for effective ministry in Cambodia.  Some great ideas came out about how to take a weekly rice offering for the poor, orphans & widows.  When we talked about examples of unjust economic situations in Cambodia the pastors discussed how weddings can be a significant economic drain for poor families, yet people tend to give smaller gifts to poor families than to wealthy ones (wedding gifts are always cash).  Therefore, in living out our faith values on economic justice, we should strive to give an equal gift to everyone so as to reduce the hardship placed on poor families to host a wedding.  It is a privilege to walk alongside as our young church is figuring out what it means to live an authentic faith in this place.¹⁴

May we each be that kind of a “prophet-driven” visionary! As that statement printed on one side of your bulletin insert states, the kind of worship that we ought to be choosing should focus on "loosing the bonds of injustice" and finding ways to "let the oppressed go free." In the words of just such a prophet:

If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness... Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.¹⁵

We come here Sunday after Sunday seeking something – community, comfort, …a word from God. We turn over rocks looking for the fingerprint of God on creation. We try to read between the lines of secular history for some word of wisdom. The truth is wisdom, sofia, the Holy Spirit, has been here from the very beginning, and she is still there, deep within the center of creation. With Jesus’ leaving there is nothing left to us but wisdom – the fingerprint of God that has put a mark on the very center of our souls. That’s the pity and the wonder of it; for as she was his delight, we are hers.

What will we do with such a gift?

* * *