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Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Green Team Disrupts Coffee Hour; & Party with new Interns...
EVENT SPOTLIGHT:
Film: Film: "A SENSE OF WONDER"
Keystone Will Advocate at the Peoples Climate Rally
21 Sept. at 1pm, Westlake Park
We'll leave after church service and catch the #16 bus at 50th and Meridian. Or we'll carpool over to the 46th Street & Aurora Ave bus stop and catch the Rapid Ride bus.
We're making signs to carry Some messages for the signs are:
Climate & Jobs
Two Crises
One Solution
For Our Kids
Price Carbon
Don't Be Fossil Fooled
For Our Kids
More Solar & Wind
Less Coal, Oil & Gas
Join us if you can. Bring water bottles and wear appropriate clothing for the weather. (If you have a Keystone shirt- great- if not- we are in process of making a next order!)
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Sermon Sunday September 14, 2014
Proper 19 Year A
Exodus 14:5-8
Stepping Past the Edge
By Rich Gamble
We’ve been in the story of
the Exodus for the past few weeks. We talked about how the Hebrew slaves in
Egypt out of the depth of despair cried out to the heavens for relief from
their suffering and how a God heard their call. This God was not the God of the
empire and all such systems that enslave and oppress, this God was a God who stood
with the vulnerable and suffering. Not only this but our faith tradition claims
that this God, is the one true God, creator of all things.
In the story God seeks to
liberate the slaves of mighty Egypt
Moses led the Hebrews east,
away from the empire. Unfortunately as the flee Egypt
Often people read these
stories literally and if we do so, then it seems to be a demonstration of God’s
ability to dominate the natural world and destroy human enemies. When we read
these stories in this way it locks them into the past. But these stories are
not relics of the past or illustrations of God’s ability to manipulate and
destroy. These are stories that are alive for us today.
I believe that this story is
the product of an initiating incident and the creative input of storytellers.
And it doesn’t matter to me which is which, separating out the incident from
the creative memory of a people is not helpful for me, it is all inspirational.
It is only important to read the story and seek the truth within it. This is
not just a history of a certain group of people, it is a way of seeing the world
in which we live.
When you hear the story you
are led to believe that there are three locations: empire, middle ground and
sea. Empire we understand, that is the system of dominating authority, where
the strong rule and oppress the weak. In one form or another it is what we have
known as civilization. It is oppressive for the vulnerable but it provides
order. The sea represents chaos, that place where order does not exist.
Biblically chaos stands opposed to all order, even righteous order. It is the unknown, uncharted, uninhabitable
place. Often in the propaganda of empire, we are told that the only alternative
to empire is chaos, and chaos is deadly.
Between
chaos and empire we find the middle ground. It is in that place where the
Hebrews find themselves, between empire and chaos. The Middle Ground is that
place where people have not completely bought into the values of the domination
system but are unwilling to enter into chaos.
People
sometimes embrace chaos out of hate for the empire. Hate is their guiding
light. They do not seek their own security or profit, they seek only to damage
the order of empire in any way they can. The violence of the domination system
can push people and whole communities into chaos. That is what is happening in Iraq ISIS .
Those
who defend the domination system of empire tell us that chaos is the only
alternative to the domination system. Better to have an unjust system than no
order at all. And given the story of the Hebrew people, it seems that this
logic has been operative from the earliest empires. The Hebrew people flee Egypt
Liberals
are generally middle ground people. Conservatives generally embrace the logic
of empire and domination. Liberals condemn the inequalities abhor the violence,
and seek to ameliorate the suffering of the victims. These are all good and
noble sentiments. But the ground upon which liberals stand is still land
dominated by empire. Liberals do not want chaos. They do not want to give up
the goodies of domination. They are still playing by domination’s rules and
supporting its order.
The
wonderful thing about this story is that we are given to believe that there are
only three locales: empire, middle ground and chaos, and actually the middle
ground is shown to be an illusion as Pharaoh’s chariots race rapidly across it,
and so there are really only two options empire or chaos. But then at the last
moment a third way is found. A path is made through chaos to the other side.
Empire, chaos and Promised Land is the new dynamic. The Promised Land is not
sitting right there on the other side of chaos. To get there you have wonder in
the wilderness until you lose all vestiges of empire in your heart and mind.
For most of us it is a journey of a lifetime, with the Promised Land a distant
but real goal.
The
forces of empire cannot conquer the chaos. They get swallowed up, just as our
mighty army was swallowed in the chaos of Iraq
Our
liberal values are indeed a step away from the violence of our political and
economic system but this middle ground is illusory, it is still land controlled
by the domination system. For the past forty years we’ve seen the ground of
liberal gains disappear under the tide of tax breaks for the wealthy and
weapons and war. We stand on the shrinking middle ground, trying to have all
the comforts of our empire while opposing the practices of that empire. As the
middle ground erodes away we are pushed to the edge of a hope that looks like
chaos.
This
story challenges us to seek a path through our fear of chaos. Our conservative
brothers and sisters have turned back towards Egypt
Liberals
on the other hand have tried to set up permanent housing in the middle ground
and ask the forces of domination to please not be so violent but also please
help us maintain our benefits as members of the empire.
Neither
of these options are a faithful solution to poverty, violence, or the
destruction of our environment; and we know this deep in our souls. We know
that something is lacking, that there has to be a vision bigger than empire or
chaos and the middle ground isn’t it.
The
Bible in this story and countless others points to this alternative but to get
there we have to first turn our backs on empire, on its logic and values. Through
this lens we look at the story of Jesus walking on the water of the sea and
inviting Peter to do the same as a reenactment of the lesson of the Red Sea crossing. Our own ritual of baptism can be seen
in this light: abandoning the worldly systems of domination, passing through
the water of chaos and rising to a new reality.
We are called to follow the call of God on the path of the third option.
We may not be able to see how a whole world civilization can be built on the power
of love but we can see how we can live out this law one step at a time in our
own lives.
Each
of us at some point in our lives awakens to the realization that we are
standing on the edge of the unknown. We are facing the fearful chaos of an
uncharted path and yet we can feel deep within us, a call to step out in faith.
We are called to give up the measures of success handed to us by the world
around us, to give up many of the comforts and distractions that consume us and
instead embrace a path of uncharted hope.
As
we constructed the Justice Leadership Program we saw several essential
elements: working for justice, living in community, living simply, and living
in the context of faith. We chose these elements, not as something for naïve
young adults to try for a year and then abandon. We chose these because we see these
as essential elements for living a life of faithfulness. By making a choice to
live this way this year, our interns are not simply young adults needing our
support but examples for us all.
Once
we forsake personal gain or personal security as primary motivations of our
lives we cease to play by the logic of the domination system. Once we forsake
violence and hatred we avoid being consumed by chaos. Once we step out into the
uncharted path of lives lived centered in the logic of love we discover that our
fears of the unknown are unfounded. This middle ground is no place to live, it
is time to move on. We are being called to a journey of freedom and hope. It is
our path and our promise. It is Good News…
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