January 20, 2013
2nd Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 62:1-5
“Speak now... or forever hold your
peace.” It's as iconic a wedding phrase as “for better or for worse.” You hear
it a lot, but the only time anyone ever “speaks now” is in campy romantic
comedies. Nobody wants to be the one to stand up and disrupt the flow of “how
it's supposed to work,” which is why it’s no longer commonly used in wedding
liturgy. Now, I want to clarify, there
is no typo in the title, I did mean peace, p-e-a-c-e, not p-i-e-c-e. Pastor Ken and I had a North v. South type
conversation over that. “His people” are
from around here and around here you speak your piece, p-i-e-c-e, or you hold
it. “My people” are from up north and
hold their peace, p-e-a-c-e, when they don’t argue with you. That first verse of the Isaiah passage that
we just read said, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” Well, in the King James, it reads “For Zion’s
sake I will not hold My peace,” p-e-a-c-e.
Why are we speaking now and not holding our peace? Three reasons.
For the first reason we’re going to
look at that same verse in the New Living Translation. As someone who works with words, I find it
fascinating to compare different bible translations. Rather than saying “for Zion’s sake,” the New Living Translation says, “Because
I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem,
I cannot remain silent.” Not just for Zion’s sake, but because I love Zion, because I love God’s people. Why do we need to speak now? For the sake of God’s people. Because some of God’s people don’t have
voices. Like the Lorax, who “speaks for
the trees, for the trees have no tongues,”[1]
there are some of God’s people who effectively have no tongues.
In 1977, Oscar Romero was appointed the new Archbishop of San
Salvador. He was considered a safe
choice, one who would stick to his books and not rock the boat in the already
rocky Salvadoran society. Well, “rocky”
is an understatement. Serious oppression,
terror, and violence was going on, all sanctioned by the government and
enforced by the military. People were
mysteriously disappearing, elections were rigged, the press was censored, and
you never knew if soldiers were about to start a massacre. Archbishop Romero decided to start speaking
out after his good friend, Rutilio Grande, was murdered. Padre Rutilio Grande was the first priest of
many to be killed during this time, and while in the U.S. a pastor’s murder may not seem so dramatic,
in a Catholic country, priests are sacrosanct.
For the three years Romero served as Archbishop, until his own
assassination in 1980, he became the voice for the voiceless. His sermons were broadcast on Salvadoran
radio and his common theme was the church and how the church has a duty to
speak out against injustice and oppression.
In a pastoral letter in 1978, Archbishop Romero wrote that “the church
has a mission of service to the people”.[2] That is, the church does not exist for
itself. We are not here this morning for
us. We are not here for our own
sake. Orange is not here to serve us. I hope you didn’t come here to be
served or to “get something out of church,” because we are here to glorify
God. Period. End of story. We gather in worship to love God. We grow because we love God and we use
that growth in service of our neighbor because Jesus also tells us to go
and love our neighbor. Sometimes that love means being a voice for
those who have no voice. Sometimes that
love means an action. For example, did
you know that hospitals were started by Christians? Medical care was not invented by us, but
in-patient medical care, what we know as hospitals were created in the 4th
century by Christians who understood that loving their neighbor meant taking
care of the sick. John Wesley, the
founder of Methodism in the 1700’s, led the early Methodists in visiting prisoners
at Oxford Castle in England, sharing food, medicine and Holy Communion. It is our heritage as Christians and
Methodists to speak out and love God’s people, not only with words but with
actions.
Finally, we do not hold our peace, indeed we cannot hold our
peace because God’s work is our work and God is about the work of restoration
and redemption. God is about the work of
making things whole, of showing his love, of setting not only you free from the
chains that bind you, but others’ chains as well. There is an online comic strip called “Coffee
with Jesus” that is done by a group called Radio Free Babylon. A couple weeks ago, they posted a comic
titled “The Real World.”[3] The first panel shows a nicely dressed lady
named Lisa holding her coffee mug and saying, “I look at the world and see
field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea! They all speak of your deep love, Jesus!” Jesus, holding his own coffee mug, responds
saying, “I know, right?” And Lisa says,
“But then I look at the real world and see the sorrow and the strife,
and I’m like, ‘Where is God in this?’”
The final panel has Jesus saying, “I am deep in the sorrow, Lisa. The strife is daily with me. // And every day
I’m going, ‘why isn’t Lisa here with me?’”
If the words of Isaiah resonate with you, “I will not keep silent, I
cannot rest” until God’s people are saved, then you’re probably already there
with Jesus in the strife and the sorrow.
If you are there, then be encouraged, and do not hold your peace until
justice is done. And if you’re not yet
in the trenches with Jesus, c’mon on in, because Jesus has got your back. Yeah, sometimes it’s hard, but we are called
to be restless until there is salvation for all of God’s people. And salvation isn’t simply being spiritually
saved, accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
This salvation is meeting people’s spiritual and physical needs,
to use the motto of the mission agency I used to serve with in Nicaragua.[4] Spiritual salvation. Physical salvation. God’s justice. For all of God’s people. Knowledge that God delights in you, like the Isaiah passage says. Have you told someone that lately? Turn to your neighbor and tell them, “God
delights in you.” Tell another neighbor
later on today who’s not at church now.
If you’re starting to feel restless but don’t know what to do, come to
the mission meeting Wednesday evening.
We’re going to be brainstorming and making plans to work with God in
growing his kingdom from our little corner of the world. If you want to be involved but can’t come
Wednesday, get in touch with Patrick, his contact information is in the
bulletin, or talk with Pastor Ken or myself.
Archbishop Romero was killed while celebrating mass, at the conclusion
of his sermon. In that final sermon, he
said, “we know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice
and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that
God demands of us.”[5] In other words, the next time you’re faced
with the choice of speaking now or forever holding your peace, speak. Act.
God will bless your effort, because God demands it. Thanks be to God for His word to us today. Amen.
Bendice, Señor,
nuestro pan.
Da pan a los que
tiene hambre
Y hambre de justicia
a los que tienen pan.
Bendice, Señor,
nuestro pan.
Bless, O Lord, our
bread.
Give bread to those
who are hungry
And a hunger for
righteousness to those who have bread.
Bless, O Lord, our
bread.
Amen.
[1] Dr. Seuss, The Lorax,
1971, p. 21.
[2] Archbishop Oscar Romero, Voice
of the Voiceless: The Four Pastoral Letters and Other Statements, 1985, p.
97.
[5] Archbishop Oscar Romero, Voice
of the Voiceless: The Four Pastoral Letters and Other Statements, 1985, p.
192.
