Wait for the Lord
“Wait for the Lord”
Psalm 130 Ephesians 4:25-5:2 John 6:35, 41-51
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, August 8, 2021
First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor
Sometimes when I’m a glutton for punishment I’ll turn on the TV and watch some news. It’s a bit ironic that the channels for Fox News and CNN are right next to each other. Just one click away from each other on the airwaves, neighbors in broadcast journalism; yet the divide in opinion would challenge any sense of being neighbors. Both a conservative view expressed by Fox and a postmodern CNN claim to have unbiased coverage, detailed analysis, and helpful commentaries for the American people.
Sometimes, if you mute the volume and look at body language, facial expressions, and gestures, their approach seems adversarial. When you do listen, each channel presents from their point of view to the exclusion of other views, and both claim theirs as the truth, the trustworthy source of not fake news, but real news. And each channel takes their turn in putting the other channel down.
How do we not get caught in this trap? Tribalistic thinking, warrior mentality, and might-makes-right dynamics? How do we not land on this channel or that channel and get sucked into the energy of exclusivism? How do we move out of low-level consciousness that assumes the loudest person is right or the one who complains the most eventually wins? How do we claim a middle ground, a third way, a healthier path? How does our face change from a serious scowl, even contempt, to a peaceful look, one of contentment without any hint of sarcasm or arrogance?
I notice on these channels that they put each other down, vilify professional colleagues who work for that “other” network. Fox News and CNN, and these are just a couple, not including talk radio. None of these will lead us to where Paul is calling the Ephesians, and us, to go, which is deeper into God’s love through Christ.
It’s an interesting exercise to watch CNN for a couple of minutes, and then click over to see Fox News for a couple more, or vise-versa, and then turn off the TV and read this passage from Ephesians out loud. Things resonates. Things like, “So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. …Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. …Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
Do you think that is on the job description of these news commentators? To be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving? To not be angry or slander others with malice in your heart? If these are essential qualities, those TV personalities often forgot to tell their face. Scowls of contempt and self-righteous smirks are not kind and tender. Our faces show the difference.
What we see on the TV is all we have as our culture approaches news through the lens of entertainment. Mass media is marketed toward the maturity level of a boy somewhere between third and eighth grade. Patriarchy, the power of mythical thinking, and the absurdity of exclusive, egoic thinking; this is what TV is built on as it expresses the developmental reality of the general public. This is the world we deal with every day.
All the more reason we give thanks that Jesus has conquered the world, transcends the world, and invites us to a higher plane of existence through the renewing of our mind and the transformation of our heart, calling us to be in but not of the world. In the world, claiming Incarnation. But not of the world, distracted and confused, settling for lesser things.
If it were up to us, for example, holding grudges is a way of life, nursing resentments and allowing wounds to define us. This seems normal because it’s how millions of people cope with pain, by pushing away that which is not comfortable or known, by preparing a good defense through a strong offense. But Jesus short-circuits this as he says in John, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.”
In other words, even our personalities have limitations. Who we think we are is not who we really are. Who we think we are is a projection, comes from our ego and is basically a coping mechanism to deal with life’s harsh realities and to avoid pain. Much of the time, this works, but with strings attached. Over time, these strings compound and eventually braid into ropes. These strands then tie us up through limited perspectives, entrenched attitudes, strongly held opinions, and staunch slogans, all designed to protect this projected image of who we think we are relative to everything else. We objectify everything external to us and keep ourselves at the center of our worldview. Different news channels resonate with different worlds, and there are at least three main worldviews at work in American culture, with four different political streams to express them.
Jesus is telling us this doesn’t work very well. Complaints and siloed thinking get us nowhere. We all need God to help us overcome ourselves. Like those grudges held, we need healed from those. But really, we may not have what it takes to be free from them. We need God to remove their burden, the Spirit to cleanse us, the Christ to help us restore broken connections with our neighbors. This is an inside job.
“And they shall all be taught by God” is another way to recognize the human condition, to see no one is exempt from doing this inner work of healing even though it is very difficult. To claim the third way, a new Reality, to invite and allow this kind of spiritual meddling takes deep trust in God. It means we need to get out of own way and stop trying to get our way at the expense of others. Like the Psalmist who says, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. …I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I hope. My soul waits for the LORD.” Friends, this is contemplation. These are spiritual disciplines that attune our hearts into instruments of spiritual perception, practices to do inner work.
I’ve been around long enough as a pastor who has seen people die to have witnessed that by the end of a person’s life, they’ve either done their inner work or they haven’t. People who die with a sense of peace and fulfillment know they’ve built relationships that are based on Love’s lasting power and people who weep when their gone have a mix of joyful and sorrowful tears as they are so glad for having known this person and yet they will miss them greatly. Others die very grumpy and not many people grieve them. Their lives had constricted, contracted, and confined rather than having expanded, opened, and blossomed. Like a porcupine, no matter how you approach them you’re going to get pricked as they fend off any perceived threat.
What kind of person do you want to be? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? How do you want to live, and die? Now is time to prepare.
Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.” This is not linear thinking, it’s more than mere time-as-duration type of eternity. It’s qualitative, expressing goodness, wholeness, balance, and Presence. This is sacred life, relational love, God’s Is-ness experienced beyond the relative limits of time and space continuums. This eternal life holds time, infuses it, and frees it. To believe in this is more than an idea but a deep trust, a leaning into, a stepping out.
Christ invites us to open ourselves to this. “I am the bread of life” is another way of saying spirit and matter meet on the inside, through the Living Christ given shape and form through our life. Like we say during communion, we re-member Christ. Like Paul who invites us, saying, “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us…” As Jesus shows, God gives life to the world through service to others. Christ’s sacrifice shows love, not judgment, and as imitators of God, we are sent, in Christ, as light and life.
Good luck with the TV. Sometimes it helps to turn it off, to go outside and take a walk, but make sure you say hello to people on the way. Stop and smell the flowers, notice the bees, watch the birds fluttering around and let the larger wholeness of life infuse you. As we lean into God through Christ in a great many expressions, we give thanks for God’s humble, vulnerable love shared with the world. Amen.