Peace and Global Witness
“Peace and Global Witness”
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, October 6, 2019
Lamentations 3:19-26 Luke 17:5-10
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Sandpoint, Idaho
These two texts are amazing! Each of them have aspects that stand out for us this morning. Luke points out how small things matter in big ways, and the author of Lamentations recognizes life’s difficulties and still claims hope grounded in the certainty of God’s loving Presence.
As my mind wandered on these threads of thought, memories came up from the Sabbatical two years ago. One involved seeing our friend, Tommy in Germany as he and his wife and son rented, what in English we call a Gondola, on the Neckar River in Tübingen. This is a long, narrow boat pushed by someone standing up at the stern using a lengthy pole. Most of us may have an image of this when we think of Venice, and the German variety is very similar. What amazes me about maneuvering a boat by using a pole is that there’s such a small point of contact below the surface of the water; the actual end of the pole touching the bottom of the river is only two or three inches wide, yet this is what provides the pressure to move and steer the boat on the surface, even a full craft with many people and supplies, and even when dealing with currents pushing or pulling the boat. Something small makes a big difference.
Another memory involves visiting bee keepers in Slovenia, and many of the bee houses that are used for the A-Z hive system have windows that allow observation of the fronts of the hives – the part where the bees are coming and going. This way, from inside the bee house, you can sit and relax while watching the bees come and go, without worrying about getting picked on by the guard bees.
Bees can forage up to two miles away, which is a pretty vast range for a small insect, yet they always return to the hive and go through an entrance just a couple inches wide. Inside the hive is dark, and yet what happens within affects not only the life of that family of bees, but the pollination of millions of flowers, which has ripple effects toward the food crops we eat.
The entrance of a hive is a threshold uniting that small, dark space with the larger, brighter world, and linking everything that sustains life outside and within.
Another more current thing that comes to mind in light of Luke’s writing is that in the last week I’ve been connected to two weddings. With weddings, lives are changed. Two people begin a wedding as single people, and emerge from a wedding as a married couple. During the wedding, words are shared that have power as Vows are taken. Verbal promises, spoken in a short moment, expressing deep connection and love, and life pivots around these small but mighty phrases.
Do you get a sense of the connecting threads between these stories: the boat pushed with a pole, the bees using their small entrance, and the significance of wedding vows spoken? These are all small things but help shape life in larger, positive ways. Much of what happens is hidden, under the surface like the pole for the boat, or inside the dark hive, or within the hearts of bride and groom. Yet, it’s the small, hidden aspects of these things that allows the more visible parts to happen. If the vows weren’t made from a foundation of heart-felt love and commitment, the marriage may not last. If a bee can’t find the entrance, or if the passage gets blocked somehow, the hive family will perish and the flowers go unvisited and the food chain may collapse. If the pole gets lost, the boat is adrift and the currents will have their way with it, putting the passengers at risk and the destination out of reach. Small things are very important, absolutely necessary for larger things to happen.
Jesus talks about faith the size of a mustard seed. Through a mystical stance, this is another way of saying humility and compassion, quiet trust, is essential. Not needing recognition or certainty, or trying to prove a point. Faith involves not knowing, holding the mystery of God as mystery.
Jesus also mentions it’s this kind of faith that can uproot the mulberry tree. This root system is extensive. How many of you look forward to landscaping projects involving removing trees or juniper bushes? The roots are not fun. Such is the mulberry tree as the example Jesus uses, not for landscaping, but as a metaphor for many things in life, problems that seem too big to overcome, and we can name several. Climate change, political corruption, hunger, poverty, inequality, cultural divisions, these types of things just scratch the surface of the many ways our world suffers and solutions seem hard to find.
Like those small things hidden below the surface that are so pivotal and powerful, peace is an inside job. Making time to sit in silence, to be mindful of God’s Presence, this helps sets the tone for inner peace, and through a transformed heart, peace ripples out into the larger world like a catalyst changing the mix.
Today we have a couple of examples to illustrate how global witness is the action which comes from the inner gaze of Presence and love. To take action means being open to recognizing that something is askew, in need of reconciliation. Thus the call to a ministry of reconciliation, like Christ.
You know that saying, “If you build it, they will come.” The Membership and Outreach Committee of this church has worked hard to build it in bringing, this week, to our community “The Blanket Exercise”, and a presentation on the Doctrine of Discovery Repudiation and the official apology of the PC(USA) and Presbytery of the Inland Northwest to the Native Americans and Nez Perce Tribe. If you build it, they will come. There are two workshops this week, built and ready to empower. Now it is up to the people to come, to set the groundwork for taking action, small steps that pivot history. Showing up to experience these presentations is like the three inches on the end of the pole, small actions meant to empower larger movements.
Actions like this are connected to history, and what we do here in small acts of humility, such as recognizing there is a problem so it’s worth showing up, affect larger arcs of history. We recognize this every time we have communion, saying we share in the bread and juice in ways that connect us with that Great Cloud of Witnesses, uniting us throughout all time and space, as we humbly receive what’s given through grace. By re-membering Jesus, the Living Christ is in our midst, sharing this meal with us. Concrete actions have spiritual ramifications. All this is true and possible, but it is our decision if we want to participate or not. No one is forcing us to take action. It’s actually easier not to show up for things, or attempt community, for it takes effort to engage and being humble goes against many of the dynamics we’re taught in our culture. But contemplation does lead to action, from a stance of grace and love, not to put ourselves higher or first in line or to get brownie points with God, but to serve, to share, to respond to God’s goodness in our lives.
Sometimes even though we’re taking actions and holding on to faith, we still wonder if it makes any difference. We wonder why we put ourselves out there, just to get humiliated or rejected. Is this life of faith really worth it, or are we just fooling ourselves? Thus Lamentations 3:19-26!
3:19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!
3:20 My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.
3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
3:22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
3:23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
3:24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."
3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
3:26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
Waiting quietly. Trusting God. Receiving salvation. How do you define Salvation? Is it just a ticket to eternal paradise? Leaving the troubles of this world for the bliss of heaven, somewhere else “up there?” If the mercies of the LORD are new every morning, then this would mean in the here and now, God is real, life is renewed, and the goodness of the LORD comes to those who wait, who ponder, who allow their soul to experience that goodness on the inside. This creates a stance on bowing down continually, which helps us through the afflictions, leading us with hope.
This week, heed the invitation of this morning’s scriptures. Invite God to help you do inner work, for this is pivotal to give shape to the outer works. Wait upon the LORD, and allow this to lead into action from a foundation of peace. As we collect the Peace and Global Witness offering, as we gather for the Blanket Exercise to hear the perspective on Native American culture and experience, as we learn about collective action such as the apology issued to acknowledge afflictions and struggles, these are small steps to guide our hearts into larger, eternal rhythms of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace. These are ways to embody Christ’s living as we claim faith and hope and love as core aspects of engaging the world.
Small things make a big difference. May God lead us in the Jesus Way as we humbly co-create God’s realm of justice, love, and grace. May God be glorified, now, even as forever. Amen.