Epifanía 4 (B) + Other-awareness / Pensar en el otro + 1.28.18

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Deuteronomio 18:15–20; Salmo 111; 1 Corintios 8:1–13; San Marcos 1:21–28)

¡Aleluya! Daré gracias al Señor de todo corazón, * en la asamblea de los rectos, en la congregación.

Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, * in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation. (S. 111:1)

Today we celebrate All Saints in our annual meeting. Hoy celebramos la iglesia de Todos los Santos.

I give thanks to God because it is here that I learn every day how to be a better Christian.

Yo en particular doy gracias a Dios porque es aquí donde aprendo diariamente como ser mejor cristiana.

To explain I will back up to our reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. En la primera lectura de San Pablo a los Corintios escuchamos sobre un debate que tenía en esa nueva comunidad de fe en Corinto- si uno se puede comer la carne que es sacrificado a los ídolos. In this letter, Paul tackles a thorny question for this young Christian community – whether it is OK to eat food sacrificed to idols.

In Corinth I hear even now you can see the evidence of the stalls selling meat right next door to the temple of Apollo.[1] Se dicen que uno todavía se puede ver donde estaban los quioscos de la venta de carne al lado del templo de Apolos.

This is big because, while some folks are from background where they don’t much care about food purity- they just see it as meat, others are recently from the background of the worship of the Greek gods –we would say pagan- or from keeping kosher, and it bothers them. Because meat sacrificed to Apollo is another way of worshipping Apollo to them, or it is simply unclean.

Hoy día es muy difícil encontrar comidas – especialmente en nuestra comunidad- que ofenden a los demás. Nowadays we are all pretty tolerant about what other people eat, for the most part. Although some fish haters I know would disagree-aunque algunos que odian al pescado estarían de desacuerdo.

But often in our modern times what trips people up is language. Muchas veces ahora son palabras lo que hieren o dividen más.

I remember when I was in high school and a fairly privileged girl in my class of South Asian descent went to a camp and she came back with a realization. You see, she had never really seen the harm in the “B” word. La palabra para la perra hembra nunca le había ofendido tanto. But in this sensitivity exercise she had to walk through a tunnel of kids yelling slurs, to understand how words matter. And one kid yelled the “B” word at her. Un chico le insulto, llamándole una perra. Y ella se dio cuenta de que nunca iba a ocupar esta palabra para describir otra mujer en toda su vida. She expressed how she would no longer use that word to describe another woman.

Este año, hemos recibido más conocimiento de cómo sienten las mujeres. In the #metoo movement, we have seen more in the public discourse this past year than perhaps in the last forty years about the realities of being a woman.

Pero también hemos escuchado de nuestros hermanos y hermanas inmigrantes. We have also gained an awareness of the plight of our immigrant brothers and sisters.

In a world in which some public figures only seem to care about themselves, we are reminded that as Christians we must think of others. Que hay que pensar uno en el otro. San Pablo refiere a los “débiles” aquí pero para mí – no es un juicio – literalmente Pablo está pensando en las personas vulnerables. We have to think of the vulnerable. Paul here is not referring to the “weak” in the faith with a tone of judgement, at least the way I read it. It is about the vulnerable.

Por ejemplo, el domingo pasado no vimos tanta gente en la iglesia. Y después de la misa pensé en la advertencia por WhatsApp- y pregunte como estaban todos- gracias a Dios nadie fue detenido de lo que yo sé- pero yo tenía que recordar el miedo que imagino que tiene la gente de vez en cuando. I realized after the lower attendance last Sunday that we had seen some warnings about ICE activity in the area- so I checked in via our WhatsApp messaging format. Thankfully no one was affected that I know of but it did remind me that some folks probably felt a lot of fear, just hearing those rumors.

I think All Santos already does an awesome job of this thinking of others thing- I have seen how you have supported Christine following her surgery and Haydee following hers. Even giving advice to Haydee not to give up-how beautiful! This is exactly the spirit of how to be a Christian that I learn from you every day. Yo pienso que Todos los Santos hace muy bien trabajo de esto, de cuidar uno del otro. Son un ejemplo para mi cada día. Keep it up!

Que continuemos este trabajo y estar aún más conscientes de las necesidades de los demás. May we continue this work and strive to be even more aware of each other’s needs – especially as regards our spiritual welfare- so that we can feel we have all run this race together, no brother or sister left behind. Que no dejemos a nadie atrás en Cristo. Amen.

---

[1] Karoline Lewis, along with Rolf Jacobson and Matt Skinner, “Sermon Brainwave #583- Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany” (for 28 January 2018), https://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx.