Lent 1 B + Love culture + 2.21.21

 

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Saints, Oxnard

(Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15)

 

I’m not sure if any of you read the comics in the newspaper, but the comic strip Zits had an interesting comic this week. Jeremy said “This ‘cancel culture’ is out of control” and his friend says “Yeah, Kind of. Although, that old tweet of yours was pretty insensitive.” Jeremy responds: “All it said was ‘penguins walk funny’!” And his friend replied: “Have you drafted your apology tweet?”

Cancel Culture is a very interesting phenomenon in our current culture. On the one hand it comes from a very democratic way of having fellow online citizens correct people who are being racist, homophobic or otherwise creating a situation of toxicity for others. In some cases people have been boycotted for expressing opinions that we would agree are not coming from a sense of the respect and dignity of other human beings. But in some cases, cancel culture becomes toxic itself, and teens, young adults and others “shut down” people who may have made an unconcscious misstep or who simply expressed an unpopular opinion. The actions or the words of the individual are too closely associated with a concept of who they are as a person and people are made to feel unworthy just because of a mistake. Today’s collect reminds us that God knows the weaknesses of each of us. And that is true. None of us is perfect, or without sin.

In the reading from Genesis today, the covenant that God makes with Noah happens after God almost decides to cancel all culture. Since humanity appears to be completely sinful, God wants to wipe humans off the map. But then God allows Noah, his family and some representative animals to survive. We learn this story in Sunday school because it is cute and talks about animals. But in reality it is kind of horrifying. Do we truly believe in a God who would have exterminated so many people? But I believe that, as big and omnipotent as God is, that part of this whole human-God relationship is that God learns along with us. And I believe that, as awful as humanity was to cause God to bring the flood (if this isn’t just a story trying to explain a terrible and unrelated natural disaster) or to allow human demise, God decided in the process of saving Noah and friends that in fact this was not the solution to sin. That in fact, as they said in the Working Preacher Podcast this week, the only true solution is through the cross.^[1] This is what we are hearing about in the first letter of Peter today when he talks about Christ dying for all of us. It is not due to our actions that we are saved, but due to Jesus’ saving action on our behalf, once and for all.

So there is sin in the world. In ourselves. But God shows us a better way. Presiding Bishop Curry describes a way to respond to the negative in the world and make it a positive in his book Love is the Way that we will be talking about during Lent. He has a list of suggestions for how to live in love, and a couple of Martin Luther King Jr’s suggestions give us ideas of how we can change our actions in light of the negativity in our society: “Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy. If King were writing today, he might add “even on social media.” Before you type a comment or a tweet, take a deep breath. Ask yourself what emotional need the communication is fulfilling-then find a healthier way to satisfy it. Scream into a paper bag, call a friend, say a prayer, take a walk in the sunshine. There is another way.” And later, he says: “Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue or heart. …. When you have an angry thought, don’t judge it. Simply note it—then let it fade from your consciousness. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health. …. It’s the call to put your own oxygen mask on first. Unselfish living doesn’t mean ignoring the self or becoming anybody’s doormat.”^[2]

How can we show a better way of living? I think these suggestions help. And it helps to remember that God loves us and shows us compassion. As the psalmist says: “Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; * remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.” May God not remember our sins but the good that sometimes only God sees in us. And alongside this, may we remember that, just as God said of Jesus in his baptism that “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased,” Karen James reminded us during the season of Epiphany that God means these words for us too. We are beloved. We are chosen. We just have to act in love too.

As Presiding Bishop Curry says at the end of his book:
“Love can help and heal when nothing else can. Love can lift up and liberate when nothing else will. May God love you and bless you. And may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.”^[3]

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[1] Rolf Jacobson, Karoline Lewis, Matt Skinner and Joy J Moore, “Working Preacher Sermon Brainwave- 1^st Sunday of Lent” https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/770-first-sunday-in-lent-b-feb-21-2021.

[2] Michael Curry, Love is the Way, around p. 92.

[3] Curry, 248.