Readings for Proper
13B:
James 1:17-27
September 7. 2003
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
Religion is a path to a sacred destination. There are many religions and many destinations. The religion that I am most familiar with is Christianity. Christianity is a path of love. Its destination is for people "to mature into the full stature of Christ." This means that Christians are to follow Jesus by living a life of compassion, generosity, mercy, forgiveness, justice, and peace. By walking this path, we are transformed into the likeness of Christ. However, in order to reach this destination, we can't just talk the talk. We need to walk the talk!
This path of love is a very difficult path to follow because it seems to go against our "natural" responses to fear and loss. For instance, it is difficult to be compassionate to others when we ourselves are wounded. It is difficult to be generous with our wealth when we are comfortable with our standard of living and want more for ourselves. It is difficult to be merciful when someone has clearly wronged us. It is difficult to forgive when we feel hurt. It is difficult to strive for justice when we are satisfied with the status quo. And it is difficult to work for peace when we are afraid of losing our own lives. But in spite of these difficulties, we are still called to respond to adversity with love. So it really surprises me, that the majority of people in the United States, have committed themselves to follow this path of love and all its requirements. An enormous cost of sacrifice and vigilance is required to reach our destination. However, I believe that following this path of Christ is worth the cost. It is worth the cost because the Christian path (when followed faithfully) leads to unity, peace, and the well-being of this world.
We are coming up on the second anniversary of the terrible events of September 11th, 2001. Most of us here will never forget the images of two commercial airplanes being flown into the World Trade Center. We will never forget the crumbling of these towering buildings, the thousands of lives lost, nor of the heroic deeds of the people in New York City. But now that the rubble has been cleared, plans to reconstruct the Trade Center have been submitted, and new police and fire forces trained, what should our response be to the events of 9/11 as a people committed to a path of compassion, generosity, mercy, forgiveness, justice, and peace? Today's sermon is about practicing our religion. I will use the reading from the letter of James as my text.
Under extreme conditions of hopelessness, “fanaticism, fundamentalism, and terrorism” can raise their ugly heads. The 9/11 terrorists were people who hated the hypocrisy and injustice of the world and were willing to do virtually anything to get rid of it, including dying for the cause and killing innocent victims. The 9/11 terrorists represent a people who have experienced defeat, occupation, human depravity, loss of power and dignity, and societal meltdown. When there is nothing else to believe in (nothing that has not already been tried), some desperate people turn to terrorism. These terrorists and the groups they represent, have accused the predominantly Christian nation of the United States of not following the path of Christianity. They say that we talk the talk but do not walk the talk. They have claimed that U.S. public policy represents an insatiable desire for more wealth and power at the expense of compassion, generosity, mercy, forgiveness, justice, and peace. They have accused us of not practicing our religion. Is there any truth in these accusations? And if there is, how might we best respond to the events of 9/11?
When asked this question, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said that the events of 9/11 hold the key to a deeper, truer relationship of Americans with the rest of the human race. He believes that one of the things that came out of 9/11 was the realization (by the Americans) that we are vulnerable and that at this moment, we do no know how to handle this vulnerability because we've been living under the illusion of being invincible. For Tutu, this disillusionment is a blessing. He believes that all creatures are fragile and that the only one who is invincible is God. What a marvelous position to be in, he exclaimed. "It throws us back on the infinite resourses of God. Maybe, just maybe, Americans will realize that the sense of insecurity that they now feel, is a daily fear of the majority of brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. Maybe this sense of insecurity will help Americans recover aspects of their humanity."
When asked for a proper Christian response to the events of 9/11, Marion Grau, professor of theology at CDSP replied: The most useful response Christian communities can offer...is a sense of humility in the face of the Other. We must resist the temptation of seeing ourselves only as victims and remember our complicity in genocidal acts. "It would seem to me that to rethink an authentic, joyful, and yet humble and loving witness for the Christian faith would include a sense of metanoia, of repentance of the sins of our fathers and our mothers and ourselves, whether known or not, that have led and continue to sustain economic and cultural oppression of those we deem less than us around the globe. This sense of repentance should then be translated into a changed way of being within this world which is God's creation…To love our neighbor as ourselves includes working toward change so that every creature on this planet has a chance to receive the full bounty of God's grace."
In today's reading from the Letter of James, the author writes: "Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness...Get rid of all sordidness and wickedness and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves…Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." For James, walking the talk is what Christianity is all about. Sure it is nice to sit in nature and experience the beauty of God! Sure it is important to know about the faith and to talk about it with others! Sure it is important to declare Jesus as Lord and Savior! But, if we do not translate our religious conviction into concrete actions then our faith is as good as dead. For James, social justice, good deeds, faithful works, and moral lives, are far more important than theological correctness or religious zeal in determining true religion.
"Throwing ourselves back on the infinite resources of God…recovering our humanity…repenting of cultural and economic oppression…a changed way of being…giving a chance to all people to receive the full bounty of God's grace…be slow to anger…be doers of the word." All of these suggestions seem like a faithful response to the events of 9/11. However, since September 11th, 2001, the predominantly “Christian” United States has engaged in two theatre wars, taken away many of our civil rights and our rights to privacy, destroyed the infrastrure of Afghanistan and Iraq, failed to secure a new government for either of those countries, caused the death of thousands of people, failed to find weapons of mass destruction- Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, created a deficit budget, and has incited anti-American sentiment throughout the world. Instead of relying on the infinite resources of God, we have placed our trust in a large standing army and the most up-to-date weapons of mass destruction.
So have we Christians walked the talk? Have we responded from a place of love or are we responding from a place of fear? Is there any truth to the accusations that Christians in the United States are not following their religion? I will let you be the judge.
| Updated 9/10/03 |
|