Sunday, September 26, 1999

WHERE CAN YOU HEAR A STORY LIKE THAT?
The Rev. Linda Carder

Exodus 17:1-7Psalm 79:1-4, 12-16Matthew 21:22-32

Once there was a people who wandered about the land seeking water from the springs, shade from the cypress and green grasses for their flocks. They were small in number, but mighty in spirit. The land became harsh, so they went down into Egypt and sojourned there, still few in number. The land was plentiful; the living was good. The people stayed there and became a nation; great, mighty and populous.

Then there arose a new king over Egypt and he said, "Behold, these people are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war befall us, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."

And so the king set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. The Egyptians treated the people harshly after that…afflicted them and laid upon them hard bondage. And the people cried out in their affliction.

Once there was a God who looked upon the dry land Earth, and the waters gathered into seas, and the plants yielding seeds, and the creatures according to their kinds, and the image male and female…and saw that it was good…And the God made a covenant with all the living creatures upon the earth.

It came to be that the God heard the people cry. The God heard the cry and saw the affliction and the toil and the oppression. And the God said, "Fear not, I have called you by name. You are mine. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One, your Savior. You who are bowed down shall speedily be released."

And the God brought the people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders. "Behold!" said the God, "All who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing. For, I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand. It is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you!’" Thus said the God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and what came from it, who gave breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walked in it.

And the people were brought out of Egypt, into a new land, a land flowing with milk and honey. The people settled in their new land to enjoy its fruits and good things. They prospered. Their fields were lush, their flocks were great in number. They built fine houses. They wore expensive clothes. Their mouths were filled with laughter, their tongues with shouts of joy. They chose a King and many successors. They triumphed in many a battle. They built a magnificent temple. They honored many gods.

Then there arose among them prophets who contended with them. "Repent!" they said. "Why have you forsaken the God who brought you out of Egypt? The God has a controversy with your people! There is not faithfulness or kindness, no knowledge of God in the land! The land mourns."

"Woe," said the prophets, "to those who lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall. Woe to those who sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes. Woe to those who trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth." But the people did not listen. With their swords, they devoured the prophets.

And the God looked away from the people…remembering the devotion of their youth, their love as a bride, the way they followed in the wilderness…into a land not sown…and the God asked, "What wrong did the people find in me…that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness…and become worthless? What wrong did they find in me?" "You are my people," said the God. "Why do you say, "We are free? We will come no more to you.’ Why have my people forsaken me?" and the God was left alone.

But the people continued in their ways. They sowed and reaped. The calves were fat. The grape arbors were heavy laden. The houses were comfortable, the city walls were strong. The army was mighty; its equipment the best.

Then there arose another great nation. With all its army it came and laid siege to the city of the God’s people. The city was besieged for two years. Famine was severe for the people. Finally, a breach in the wall was made. The men of war went out from the city by night, but the enemy pursued them and overtook them. The great temple was burned. The Kings house and the fine houses were burned. All the walls were broken down.

And the God noted: "How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the cities has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly in the night, tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become enemies. (Lam. 1:1&2 RSV)

And the people were devastated for many years. And they cried out again, "O Lord, art thou exceedingly angry with us? Hast thou utterly rejected us? The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned.

The God heard the cries of the people. Grieving deeply, the God said, "For a long time I have held my peace. I have kept still and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in travail. I will gasp and pant. Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, I call to you my people."

"For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment, I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love, I will have compassion on you."

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among the people, full of grace and truth. Born in a manger, the sign was a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. It was a boy named and claimed, a boy of the community searched for when missing, a boy turned man under the tutelage of elders and in accordance with the vision of a mother.

He dwelt among the people listening and touching, speaking his thoughts, trying out new ideas. He made some friends, had his heart broken, and after the pain had its time, reached out to reconcile. His grace was amazing. He broke a few rules, overturned some things and the people wondered…..

And the God said, "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near!"

The people were puzzled, but gradually they came. They began to follow this Jesus and found that it was good. Life had meaning and purpose for them and they discovered a power within them that moved mountains of hopelessness and helplessness in themselves and in the communities in which they lived. They were on the move and it was good… and it was dangerous.

Too dangerous. There was an arrest, a trial and a condemnation to death. This boy of the community tutored to manhood, this man of Word and flesh died. But not without promise. In three days there would be again be life.

"Know this," said the God. "My thought are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and return not there….but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty. It shall accomplish that which I purpose…and prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

"Now go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be a memorial, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off." Because, the God said, "because...you are precious in my eyes…and honored…and I love you."

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Where can you go to hear a story like that? Where else can you go? Where can you go when you are freshly birthed to be named and claimed. Where can you go when you’re very curious, but still not too brave, when you are thinking but still a novice at decision making, when you are 7 or 9 or 10 and a half and learning about freedom? Where can you go to make a mistake and not be spanked or flunked or ridiculed or abandoned? Where can you go to here such a big "I love you?" Where can you go to hear a story like that.

Where can you go when your body is out of control and your feelings do not compute and what you believe is all jumbled up? Where can you go to hear ‘this we believe’ with conviction and rootedness and truth? Where can you go as a teenager and see for yourself that life is struggle and that struggle is growth and that growth means saying, "I believe?" Where can you go to hear a story like that?

Where can you go when you must wrestle with good and evil, with power and justice, with pressure and balance, with problems and possibilities? Where can you go as an adult to hear a story of hope and promise, a story of reconciliation, a story of courage…a corrective word, a comforting word, a transcendent word? Where can you go to hear a story like that?

And where can you go in your suffering? Where can you go to grieve the unfairness of life, the sudden loss of life, the victimizing of life, by violence, oppression and poverty? Where can you go to hear the Word that says, "I have heard your cry. I will help you." Where can you go awash in tears from racism and sexism, from homophobia and prejudice to hear, "I have called you by name. You are precious in my eyes." Where can you go to hear that?

It is faith that enables us to look into the depths of our human situation; it is a gathered community that holds the story we yearn to hear. It is the church, the body of Christ that witnesses to a Truth that lights fires in the lives of persons by which they are able to see themselves in a new light. It is in the church, in the parish, where you can hear a story like that.

It is the church, CCC, that is the guardian of the tradition, the keeper of the story. And teaching is the patient labor of equipping people to hear the story, and of making the story our own so that we can tell it. Effective education in the parish brings people of all ages inside the story where they can discover whose they are and hear critically what is and what should be. Effective education in the parish watches as a story shapes a people who then go out to shape a world. Effective education in a parish keeps a story moving and tears flowing and joy rebounding.

And the persons who hear this story will grapple with the purpose and meaning of life, will deal faithfully with conflict and will gradually and surely embody God’s intentions of dignity and worth, power and freedom, respect and reconciliation, justice and love and peace. Persons so equipped will have a faithful relationship with all of life because a particular story has been able to be heard.

Birth-wet or death dry, humans will seek the story which calls and claims, binds and heals, obligates and frees. Once there was a God and a people. The God called them by name and offered to take them by the hand because they were precious in the God’s eyes. Still there is such a God. Still there is such a story to tell.

This was written by The Rev. Sandra Vassal Edwards

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