The Invitation of Scripture

Come by here, Lord, come by here. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. For you are our strength and our redeemer. Amen. You may be seated.

Good morning, Cathedral Family, here and online. We, as Episcopalians, like our siblings in other denominations such as our Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist and Catholic siblings, we are a lectionary people. This means that each Sunday in this part of our service dedicated to the word culminating in the sermon, we read a prescribed set of texts from the Bible. And so presumably across the Episcopal church on this Sunday morning, we are all hearing the same lessons. But here is the thing. Just because we are a lectionary people does not mean that we know the Bible. Episcopalians, unlike some of our siblings in the faith, are not known for being able to quote a scripture, chapter and verse, on demand. Our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, once joked, in fact I think from this pulpit, that as a part of his legacy, he wants to ensure that every Episcopalian knows at least one Bible verse by heart other than ‘Jesus wept.’

As I’ve read the lectionary lessons in preparation for this sermon, I was struck by the fact that as we engage the lectionary, that is, when we read scripture, we’re not just reading for historical purposes or even for purposes of memorization. Rather week after week after week, as we read, we are actually not only reading a story, but we are actually reading ourselves into a story. Into a wider story of faith, a story of God inviting us, as sacred creatures of God, to join God in cultivating a world, a future worthy of God’s good creation. This is a world to quote again Bishop Curry, ‘where all are loved, where justice is done and where the God-given equality of all of us is honored’. Simply put, Cathedral Family, when we read scripture and the stories of God’s movement in history, we should see these stories that are scripture as an invitation.

The same invitation given to all of those who about whom we read, from Abraham to Paul if you will, an invitation from God to join with God in fostering a world and future reflective of the goodness and righteousness that God wants for God’s world, that God wants for God’s people. Cathedral, put another way, when we read scripture, we are not just to be detached bystanders to this sacred story that is God’s, but rather we are to become a part of it, living it out in the context and world that is our own. We are to see ourselves as recipients of a generous invitation calling us to be nothing less than participants in God’s story in this our time and place. And so, what does all of this mean for us? What does it mean for us in this, our time and place, to become a part of God’s story?

The answer to this question is found in that portion from the letter of Ephesians that we heard read to us this morning. For Ephesians is written in a time that is ripe with divisions and animosity. It is written to a people who have made their ethnic, cultural and religious differences a source for polarization and hostility. The world of Ephesians is one defined by enmity and strife, by distrust and ill will. Does any of this sound familiar? The more things change, the more they stay the same. It gives into this context that the writer of Ephesians, some say it’s Paul, some say it’s not, regardless of who it is, the point is the same. The writer of Ephesians wants readers and hearers of this letter to live out God’s story, a story made known to them in Jesus. They are called to participate in that story even in, no, especially in, their fractured and hate-filled world and time.

And so what does it mean for us to live out God’s story in this, our fractured and hate-filled world and time? It means, first and foremost, Ephesians tell us, that we are to speak the truth. Speak the truth. Why? Because we are members of one another. Here is the thing. The community of people that God has created us to be, and calls us to be, cannot be built upon deception, falsehood, deceit, disinformation or lying. It cannot be grounded on, as Jesus might say, the sand of untruth. Rather, the kind of community that God wants for us must be built on honesty, genuineness, forthrightness, integrity, veracity. It rests on the rock that is truth. The truth that is God’s, which we are called to speak, is not abstract. It is not just an ideal whose time is yet to come. Know the truth that we are called to speak is to be real.

It is that which we are to embrace and live out in our very lives, in our very living. Our lives are indeed to be ‘the words of’, as biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann says, ‘a sustained contestation of truth’. This means that first, in all that we do, in each of the spaces that we find ourselves, we should stand up to that which we know to be truth. And at the same time, we should contest that which we know is untruth. Moreover, on our way to becoming the community of God’s people, where we really will be, are members of one another, as God has created us and wants us to be, that which some have called the Beloved Community, we must always, always face the truth of who we are and who we have been and of course who we want to be. It is telling that the Episcopal Church wider racial justice initiative called Becoming Beloved Community, it’s telling that one of the first steps in this four-part plan is simply titled Telling the Truth.

And it is no accident that the road toward coming back together again after the apartness that was apartheid in South Africa began with telling the truth. Truth telling family was the prerequisite of reconciliation. It was the prerequisite if reconciliation in South Africa was ever to be achieved. Bottom line, it is truth that nurtures community. It is truth that nurtures what it means to be one with another. It is untruth that fosters polarization. In fact, the deception, deceit and evasions of untruth, thrive on polarization and division. Cathedral, I know that it is not easy. I know that it is hard and sometimes just uncomfortable to speak and stand for truth in this time that is ours. But to be a part of the story of building a more just world and future means that we are to do nothing less than to cultivate the kind of truth and truth telling, which brings us ever closer to who God has created us to be. Again, members of one another and treating each other as such.

Jesus put it this way: ‘The truth will set you free’, He said. ‘Free’, Cathedral Family. Free from all that stands of the way of being who God created you and me to be. What does it mean for us to participate in the story of God’s that we read week after week after week? It means truth and as Ephesians goes on to tell us, it means to ‘be angry but not sin’. Hear this, there is nothing wrong with anger. To participate in God’s story is to be angry, angry as God is angry. The Bible is full of stories about God’s anger, especially as reflected in the anger of the prophets at the undue suffering, at the dehumanization, at the pain and the utter injustice that human beings are made to endure.

I don’t know about you, but seeing people treated as less than the sacred beings that they are, well, I confess that simply makes me angry. Anger against injustice, against humanity and the inhumane treatment of others. Anger against that which you know to be wrong is not simply okay, it is required, if we are to live into the biblical story that we read, inviting us into God’s vision for us all. And my goodness, Jesus certainly got angry on many occasions. He became angry at the hardheartedness as shown to the man with the withered hand as reported in Mark. And who can forget the raw anger of Jesus as he turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple. So yes, anger is not simply all right, it is required.

But then there is this matter of sin, which is a question of what to do with our anger. Our anger should never ever lead to that which is vindictive, that which is vengeful, that which is retributive. For again, these things only serve to alienate us from one another and thus alienate us from God and God’s vision for us. And it is this alienation from God and one another that is sin. It is for this reason that we are not, as Ephesians makes clear, to let the sun go down or on our anger. That is, we are not to stew in it and let it fester. For to stew in anger is a recipe for vindictiveness, meanness and retribution. Rather than stewing in our anger, and as I know, sometimes it feels good to stew in our anger, but rather than doing that, we are to let it out. Let it out through passionate responses of mercy, passionate responses of kindness, of healing, of acts that reflect the peace that is the justice of God. Through acts that reflect again who God has created us to be and wants us to be. And so, what does it mean for us to participate in the story of Gods that we read?

It means speaking the truth. It means being angry but not sin. And it means Ephesians says, ‘thieves giving up stealing’. Now of course we know that we are not to take that which does not belong to us. And so we are all probably now going, whew, that doesn’t apply to me. Oh good, I got this. Well, not so fast. The kind of stealing that Ephesians is pointing us to is the kind of stealing that perhaps too easily we ignore or do not consider stealing at all. This is the kind of stealing where the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. It is the kind of stealing that goes on with the business as usual that creates conditions of poverty, of homelessness, of hunger and need. This is the kind of stealing where we profit knowingly or unknowingly off of someone else’s lack. Where we profit is the prophet Amos says by ‘trampling on the needy’.

It is the kind of stealing that was going on in the temple that calls Jesus to turn the tables over in the first place. Cathedral Family, we are not to participate in, be complicit with, be party to stealing of any kind, systemically, structurally or otherwise. We are not to be thieves, depriving another of the abundant life that God wants for each one of God’s children. Rather, we are to be generous in our sharing even as we cultivate a world, a society and church which is so generous, so that each and every one of us can enjoy the life and future that God wants us to have. And this, Cathedral Family, is a future where others are not deprived of that which we would not want to be deprived. Or as I often say, it is a future where, where we do not withhold from another that which we would not want withheld from ourselves.

And then, we should go about creating a world and a society and a future that does not withhold from another, that which we would not want withheld from ourselves. To do anything less than that is stealing. And so in the words of Ephesians, ‘thieves must give up stealing, rather let them labor and work honestly with their whole own hands so as to have something to share with the needy’. This is what it means to live into the story of God’s that we read. And it further means Ephesians says, ‘to let no evil talk come out of our mouths’. My dad used to put it this way, ‘If you don’t have anything good to say, then don’t say it at all’. I always thought, even as a child, that the old adage that I’m sure you all know, ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me’.

I always thought that was wrong. Words can hurt, words can harm. They can sometimes leave bruises and pain for far longer than that of sticks and stones. To be a part of the story of God’s that we read, is to know in fact that words do matter. And so we are to speak always words that are good, not evil. These are words that are kind, words that affirm. They are words that build up. They are words that encourage and empower people to be good. They empower people to be better. They empower people to be the best of who God wants them to be. To use words in any other way is not only to betray the story of God’s that we are called to live, but it is to violate the very sacred breath that God has given us to breathe so that we can live and speak.

And so, what does it mean for us in this our world and time to live into the story of God’s that is scripture? It means yes, to speak the truth. It means yes, to be angry but not sin, to not steal and to not speak evil. It means letting go of, as in forgiving, all that would prevent us from being the world and the people that God has indeed created us to be. And so it is when we do this that we are then able to live into the love that is the story of God’s. The love that is the story of God’s that we are invited into. For in the final analysis, it is a story about God’s love. The scripture that we read week after week after week, is nothing less than an invitation to us all to participate in that great sacred love story that is God’s.

Cathedral Family, here is the thing I know: regardless of how powerful, how pervasive, how persistent and poisonous is that which divides, polarizes and alienates us one from another, none of that stands a chance against the love that is God’s. For the love that is God’s is real. It is active. It breaks into our history. That’s what scripture tells us. And it is found in those moments and places and time when we show up. When we show up resisting the untruth, when we show up angry with the injustice, when we stop the thievery, when we stifle the evil words, it shows up with us.

God’s love shows up with us when we show up fighting for the beloved community of truth, justice, equality, and kindness that is God’s for us. God’s love is that which triumphed over the crucifying violence of the cross. And so I know that it can certainly triumph over the hostility and enmity of our time. It is for this reason that in the end, Ephesians sums up the call to us as: ‘Living in love,’ Ephesians says, ‘as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God’.

And so back to the beginning. We may not know a scripture that we can recite on demand by heart. But this, I know, that that is not the most important part of what it means for us to be a lectionary, scripture reading people. No. To be a lectionary, scripture reading people, is for us to receive and accept the invitation of God to live in to the story of scripture that we read. Cathedral Family, may it be so. Amen.