Keep Your Feet in the Light, December 09,2012

Keep Your Feet in the Light

Sunday December 09, 2012

Rev. Kathryn Ransdell

Baruch 5:1-9
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
   and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God. 
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
   put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; 
for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven. 
For God will give you evermore the name,
   ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’. 

Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
   look towards the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
   at the word of the Holy One,
   rejoicing that God has remembered them. 
For they went out from you on foot,
   led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
   carried in glory, as on a royal throne. 
For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
   and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
   so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. 
The woods and every fragrant tree
   have shaded Israel at God’s command. 
For God will lead Israel with joy,
   in the light of his glory,
   with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Luke 1:68-79
68“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. 69He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, 70as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. 72Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant,73the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us 74that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.76And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. 78By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”



People outside of the United States tend to get annoyed by the States.  People inside the States often don't consider the world outside of the contiguous 48 states (and I say that for a reason because Hawaii and Alaska often are forgotten too).  We vacation within our country rather than go to places like Europe, and we see Yosemite.  When we visit Niagara Falls, we visit Niagara Falls, NY, not Niagara Falls, Ontario. 

There is something else peculiar about those who live south of the 49th parallel.  In their early origins after what they call the Revolutionary War, as the 1800s progressed, there was this sense that America was the New Zion.  This fervour grew so strong that it inspired a westward land-grab underwritten by the message of Manifest Destiny--God has brought them to this new land to literally bring about God's kingdom, which means the heathens that were inhabiting the land were to be dealt with, either assimilated into what it means to be Christian, ie, a white European, or massacred.  

And this sense of religious entitlement carried into the 20th century, perhaps taken a backseat by the two World Wars when theology focused more on theodicy...where is God when suffering happens as husbands and fathers and sons died in trenches?  Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant into the US, wrote a song in 1918, called "God Bless America," with an introduction that has pretty much been dropped from the collective memory of this song:

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

In 1938, Berlin felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song", and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast. 

 This theological phenomenon of Americanism as being divinely-guided rose again when the beginning seeds of the religious right merged with the fiscally conservative Republican party in the Reagan years.  The unofficial anthem of this peculiar people, "God Bless the USA," was first the theme song at the 1984 Republican National Convention.  This same song hit the charts again after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and again, when the US invaded Iraq in 2003.

Now Canadians as a culture who rush to apologize before they have even offended, and others in the world, feel it is arrogant of the US to assume a unique divine connection.  And I would have to agree.  It is arrogant for the entire US to assume that God has somehow uniquely called it and fashioned it as God's own.  Because in truth, it is only the state of Texas that God truly has uniquely called it God's own and blessed that beautiful state. 

There, my cards are on the table.  Tongue in cheek, the US must look carefully at itself if it chooses to see its political and diplomatic actions through ideological and theological lenses.  Really, this applies to any country.  

So let's take a look at this morning's Scripture from Baruch.  Baruch was Jeremiah's private secretary. Legend tells us that he lived during the Jewish exile in Babylon (Iraq). History tells us that Jeremiah and Baruch were actually deported to Egypt where they both died.  Following Jeremiah's lead, he preached that the exile would end. He said that the people of Israel would return home in triumph. Baruch pictures mountains being leveled to facilitate this homecoming. The "mountains" are the political obstacles to be hurdled before it could happen.

The text of Baruch is identified as a confessional liturgy in 3 parts, used during the Second Temple time period.  This morning's Scripture comes from the third part of the litugy, known as the poem of consolation.  If it sounds familiar, that's because it echos the more known Advent and Christmas passages from Isaiah 40-66.

So who is the poem consoling when it refers to "O Jerusalem?"  If it truly is a poem, then with most poems, there are a 1,000-ways to interpret the metaphors and images.  Is it referring to the city of Jerusalem itself, as it was during the exile when the poem is set, or, to the city of Jerusalem as it was during the Second Temple period, 300 years later, when the poem was written?  

Is it referring to Jerusalem during the 1300-years when the Muslim empire controlled it?  Is it referring to Jerusalem before 1948?  Is it referring to Jerusalem before or after 1967?  Or is it referring to the Zionists in the 1800s who wanted the United States to be the New Zion, the place where Jesus would return and establish God's kingdom?  Or is it referring to the current-day Christian Zionists who have made strange political bed-fellows with the current-day Israeli government, in hopes that if they support the government of Israel they will put in-play the Second Coming of Christ, known in fundamentalist circles more simply as "The Rapture?" 

I think this is where we have to walk lightly with our theology.  If we understand Baruch as a confessional liturgy, and we go to the beginning of the liturgy, Baruch states what any country that has ever tried to align itself with ideological underpinnings must one day say, "The Lord our God is in the right, but there is open shame on us today, on the people of (the US), on the inhabitants of (America)."  

Baruch in chapter 1 speaks of the people of Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Jerusalem as something different from the "Jerusalem" to which God offers consolation to in today's text. 

And perhaps that's enough sermon in and of itself...it's us, the people, who were, and are, and always will be, the trouble-makers.  You could even read this text as a creation text, God consoling the whole earth...Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Earth, O Gaia.

We humans are the ones who mess up the land, abuse the land, cross boundaries with the land creating unsustainable scenarios, so that in a sense, everyday, we repeat those first actions of Adam and Eve. We, the people, are treating the heavens--and the earth--as if it were ours for our disposal.  

 The church reads this passage in Advent so that we can consider messy things like religion and politics on what otherwise should have been a cheery Sunday in Christmas.  It's kind-of like how the liturgical music messes with us making us sing Advent songs in December that are told in minor keys.  As Darryl and I chose hymns this week, every tune he hummed, I didn't like, and then I realized, oh, it's advent, the season of singing in minor keys.  Can't the church be more like the world and begin playing its Christmas hymns a month in advance?  

And that's it...that's the problem.  The church can't be like the world.  

The church invisible is called to make itself visible in the world by being NOT LIKE THE WORLD.  

And this is what that looks like: "O Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.  The world lives in hatred, let me sow love.  The world gets stuck in how others injures it; let me pardon.  The world gets stuck in despair that the Mayan calendar just  might be right; let me be hopeful.  The world lives in darkness.  Let me be a light."  

The Jerusalem being consoled today by Baruch is the not-yet vision of a world that can one day be in community, which break this word down "com" "unity," a world that is with unity.  Imagine a world where we come together and aren't divided first by our geographical location, second by our class standing, third by our genitalia, fourth by what we do or don't do with that genitalia, fifth by our religious practices and observances, and sixth by whether we say "to-mae-to" or "to-mah-to."  

The church cites this passage to suggest a cosmic preparation for the coming of the Son of God.  At Christmas, Christian theology don't celebrate a past event, we celebrate that God's kingdom is coming.  In fact, what Marcus Borg and the historical Jesus movement want us to understand, is that the particular way the Nativity stories were written reflect this idea of a return of Christ. And this gets tricky for us educated, liberal Protestants who would rather do away with any talk of a Second Coming of Christ because our more conservative brothers and sisters have taken the lead on defining what we mean when we speak of the return of Christ.  

But why would we give away this vision of what God wants this world to be?  A vision that is shared by all three Abraham-ic faiths.  A vision that one day peace will reign on this earth.  And until that day, let that peace begin with me.  

There's not a lot out there on Baruch in the preaching world.  But I did find this poem, lifting out the verse, "Righteous Peace, Godly Glory" shall be the name of Jerusalem.  

The poet speaks to us, the inhabitants of this earth....

Righteous Peace begins our name
even with despair, betrayal, exile
in the midst of civil war, genocide, Gaia rape
we hear our name called and remember
Righteous Peace is who we are to grow to be

Godly Glory completes our name
in the midst of lies, pranks, hammer throwing
even with entitlements, covetousness, sorrow
we remember to listen for our name
Godly Glory is our chief end

no Righteous Peace, no Godly Glory
only Righteous Peace, no Godly Glory
no Godly Glory, no Righteous Peace
only Godly Glory, no Righteous Peace
both and both
Om shanti, shanti, shanti
(Posted by Wesley White)

The translation of "Om shanti," a Hindu phrase, goes like this:  "I am a soul, an eternal being." 

The Christian story adds that we are only souls known in relationship to one another and with God.  There is no individual in the Christian identity.  We are known in how we practice community between us as a people of faith and beyond us, as people who are called to live lives of peace.  

It is in living lives of peace, of realizing our eternal being, of knowing that what life is a temporary condition, that we fulfill the words Zechariah spoke over John the Baptist, 8-days after this birth as they prepared for the ritual circumcision.  "The dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."  

If darkness and death are separation from God, and if God is community, then the dawn we are hoping for is a dawning of community, a world with unity.  Those who sit in darkness are those who have know community, who are lonely, who are isolated, some by choice, some by the culture that encourages isolation as being more polite (try saying hello to people you pass on the sidewalk), and others by addiction or mental illness. 

And that's just us privileged North Americans.  We can't forget those who could not help where they were born.  Those who were born into lands that have been disputed for centuries past and probably centuries to come, until God's kingdom comes, most likely.  

It's interesting, just as Baruch and Jeremiah were probably carted off to Egypy rather than Babylon, because this book's original language is Hebrew, it was probably most likely written in what was then Palestine.  The past 6-weeks in modern day Palestine and Israel are enough to long for the taking off of this garment of sorrow and affliction.  We can't forget those who had no choice but to live in Palestine and Israel and who died in November because of the violence.  

Watch where your feet take you today.  Two days after this Wednesday, the date the  Mayans predict the world to end, the movie "The Hobbit" will be released.  This is one of my favourite quotes from the book:  

"He often used to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep and every path was its tributary. "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to."