A love letter for creation + 4 Epiphany C + 2.2.13

Melissa Campbell-Langdell+

All Santos, Oxnard

Epiphany 4C, 2.3.13

(Jer. 1:4-10, Ps. 71: 1-6, 1 Cor. 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30)

Help, says the Psalmist (71:1-2):
“In you, O LORD, have I taken refuge; *
let me never be ashamed.

In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; *
incline your ear to me and save me.”

Or, as Anne Lamott puts it in her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow:

“Praying ‘Help’ means that we ask that Something give us the courage to stop in our tracks, right where we are, and turn our fixation away from the Gordian knot of our problems.  We stop the toxic peering and instead turn our eyes toward something else: to our feet on the sidewalk, to the middle distance, to the hills, whence our help comes—someplace else, anything else.  Maybe this is a shift of only eight degrees, but it can be a miracle.”[1]

Help!  You can imagine Jesus just yelling “Help!” in his head while escaping from the crowd after this brave moment in today’s gospel.  This moment where he takes a nice fuzzy “hometown boy made good” moment, saying he’s fulfilled the scriptures in their hearing, and then points out what this means.  He says that now things have to change.   That they can’t remain complacent.  But that chances are, as his hometown crew, they are going to be less open to God’s message than the outsiders.  And boy, does that turn out to be true.  The gospel, when it spreads, will spread like wildfire, mostly among non-Jews, those who are very different from Jesus. 
Peter Gomes said of this passage: “the people take offense not so much with what Jesus claims about himself, as with the claims that he makes about a God who is more than their own tribal deity.”[2]

Jesus says, yes this nice Yahweh that even though you can’t name him, you think you have in your spiritual pocket, this Lord of yours, is actually the God of all.  And maybe you’re too close to the issue to see it.  God might be better able to free the poor and heal the sick in someone else’s backyard. 

Because perhaps there are powers and principalities that would blind you.  The Roman Empire that would like you to stick to the Jewish program as it works for them.  Those in the Jewish temple leadership right now think they should stay in power.  And they think, “Who does Joseph’s son think he is?”

So Jesus tells the truth.  And boy does it cause a ruckus!  Theologian Charles Campbell points out that even here, at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, there’s mob violence. [3] Jesus’ truth is just a bit too hot, and especially for those who would like to remain complacent, who like their lives as they are just fine, thank you.  We will see this later, but even now, right before Lent, we get a glimpse.  Sad but true.

Another difficult truth about our world that we will be exploring this Lent is the reality of Global Warming and how we can take better care of the planet. This is another sad but true reality to which our bishops, our president and our scientists have called us to respond.[4]  

As we know from Genesis, we humans are supposed to be stewards of creation—Adam our forefather named each animal, and in that naming, a special relationship was formed between plants and animals and humankind.  Yet we have lost touch with creation—as we have in many ways lost touch with each other, craving digital and electronic connection, the comfort of homes where we grow grass in the desert and eat out of season fruit because it can be shipped from a far flung country. 

We don’t note the carbon footprint of our actions, or if we do, we feel vaguely guilty, without feeling we can make much of an impact.  Maybe the way things are working mostly works for us right now.  Or maybe we are afraid.  Destruction of our planet might come.  Some of us are petrified.
But we all know guilt is not a motivating factor.  And fear is, but it isn’t the most powerful one.  Because it immobilizes us. No, love is the great motivator.   Love … that love that is often over –romanticized from today’s Corinthians passage.  But when you look at Corinthians in context, you see Paul isn’t writing us a personal valentine.  No, the love that he means is anything but shallow paper hearts and doilies. 

This love is real.  Love, not fear is our best motivator, if it is motivating us to care for our church, our families or for the planet. 

So going back to today’s gospel, you might think that Nazareth suffers from frog in a pot syndrome. A frog is in a pot that is slowly heating on the stove.  At first, it feels pleasantly warm, but then, when it’s too late, it all begins to boil.  Jesus’ hometown is too close to him to feel the heat of Jesus’ truth for the opportunity for change that it is, and they will not jump out of the pot of what they know. Instead their anger boils over and they would destroy him in their destruction. 

We might be worried, looking at global warming, that we are quite literally the frogs in the pot.  We as a country are generally aware of this issue.  In many parts of the country we recycle.  Some drive Priuses.  Some take public transportation.  But what we do seems piddling when you look at the percentage of Germany (Germany!) that is heated by solar power, which will be at 50% by 2025.  When we consider one quarter of Chinese people receive hot water from solar.[5]  Why don’t we?  Well, just as in Jesus’ day there were powers and principalities that would shut down his message, would react in fear, our investment in things like big oil holds us back. 

Perhaps this is part of why we see through a mirror dimly.  We think we need to rely as we do on fossil fuels.  In many ways, this is all about fear, or complacency.  It would be really hard to change things. 

But creation care, if it is about anything at all, is about LOVE.  Fear immobilizes us, tries to drive us and Jesus’ truth off of cliffs.  But Love is patient, kind, and above all, BRAVE.  Henri Nouwen says “real resistance requires the humble confession that we are partners in the evil we seek to resist.”[6]  Whether it is the destruction of our planet or other evils that we need to resist, help us to be humble.  Help us to be brave.

Brave like Jeremiah, who from a young child hears a call and answers it.  Jeremiah, who represents all of Israel and the call on all faithful people to act for good.[7]

Brave to care because God cares.  It is God’s creation.  And he loves us, and has entrusted us with its care.  Let us love one another, and let us love the earth.  We prepare in the next couple of weeks for a holy Lent. 

If you will, join Dave Matthews and me on Wednesday nights in Lent and help us pray together not only to live better lives of discipleship individually but how to react out of love in community.  Because we all need some help.

And as Anne Lamott says about asking for help…  “It may be one of those miracles where your heart sinks, because you think it means you have lost.  But in surrender you have won.  And if it were me, after a moment, I would say, Thanks.”[8]

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[1] Anne Lamott, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers (New York: Riverhead Books, 2012), 40.

[2] As quoted in Peter Eaton, “Homiletical Perspective: Luke 4:21-30,” FOTW Year C, Vol. 1.

[3] Charles Campbell, The Word Before the Powers: An Ethic of Preaching (Louisville: Westminister John Knox Press, 2002), 50.

[4] Read more: http://www.edsd.org/for-congregations/sermons/a-pastoral-teaching-from-the-house-of-bishops-of-the-episcopal-church/.

[5] Bill McKibben, “Playing Offense: It’s time to divest from the oil industry,” Christian Century (January 9, 2013), 27.

[6] As quoted in Campbell, 86.

[7] Kathleen M. O’Connor, “Introduction to Jeremiah,” NISB.

[8] Lamott, 40.