Here are my thoughts for the 2nd Sunday in Lent. The Scriptures for this Sunday were Genesis 15: 1 – 12, 17 – 18; Philippians 3: 17 – 4: 1; and Luke 13: 31 – 35.
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I started this piece last Wednesday, before the snow fell (see the “The Great 2010 Snowstorm”) and the earthquakes rocked Chile and Japan. For some, such occurrences, along with the earthquake in Haiti, would be sure signs that the “End Times” were now. But this is not an “End Times” piece. As those who have read my posts well know, I have never accepted that idea or that scenario.
But it is a vision piece and it goes to what John the Seer actually saw in his vision so many years ago on the island of Patmos. It is not a vision of death and destruction that many say is the essence of the Seer’s revelation but a vision of hope that there can be a better tomorrow, that there is a promise for us all. It is a vision that comes from looking around at this world and saying, as Robert Kennedy did so many times during his Presidential campaign of 1968, “some see things as they are and ask why; I see things that never were and ask why not.”
Why, for example, do we spend billions on war and violence but only millions on feeding people and caring for people? Why do we not work to stop violence in this world, both overseas and at home, by building better schools and making sure that everyone has something to eat and has the proper healthcare? Why must we continue to accept the notion that violence is always the answer to violence?
Why is it that we speak as if we were Christian but yet our lives, our words, our deeds say otherwise? Are we so afraid of what might happen if everyone were truly equal that we will do anything to maintain the status quo?
The other day, a friend of mine asked why I was a liberal. I suppose that I could have given some sort of snappy answer like I do when I am asked about the title of my blog (where is your heart, anyway?). But I put my choice in terms of how I grew up and what I saw across the country while I was growing up.
Now, it should be pointed out that my parents were and are conservative but my decision to be a liberal is not a product of some sort of youthful rebellion. The one thing that my parents gave me, even in junior high and high school, was a certain degree of independence (with a clear understanding that I accepted the consequences of my actions). And because I had that independence, I perhaps saw things differently from my classmates in junior high and high school.
I may not have asked the question when I was in the 7th grade at Bellingrath Junior High School in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1962 but I did begin to ask later why it was that I had to buy my textbooks that year from a book store instead of having my teachers give them to me as had been the case the first six years of school or the rest of my junior high and high school studies. And while I didn’t have to buy my books when I was a junior and senior in high school (1966 – 68) in Memphis, Tennessee, why did the high school band only get $50.00 a year for instruments, music, equipment, and uniforms. I didn’t have to pay for my uniform when I marched in the William C. Hinckley High School Band and it cost a lot more than the uniform I wore marching for Nicholas Blackwell High School in Bartlett, Tennessee.
If you understand the times and the places, then you have the answer to my questions. And you have to ask how is it that, we who profess to live in a nation founded on the concept of equality and liberty, would enact laws that take away those very concepts? How is it that we, as a society and individually, feel threatened by the concept that everyone should have health care and earn not a minimum wage but a living wage? How is that we, as a society and individually, feel threaten by the notion that we are the same in God’s eyes when we believe that there are differences because of sexuality, race, economic status, or country of origin? Why is it that we feel that today is as good as it will ever be and that yesterday was better and tomorrow is to be feared? Could it be that we are not prepared to ask the questions or hear the answers?
And while I was asking questions about why the color of one’s skin or the economic status of one’s family are barriers to progress in this country and this world, I also began ask questions about my faith and what part my faith can have in changing the vision of the future. My affirmation as a Christian and as a Methodist challenges me to put my faith in action, to do more than just say the “right words” on Sunday and leave my faith in the sanctuary when I leave at the end of the service. And yet, even today, when it is so clear what the meaning of Christianity is, there are those who do not even what their vision of Christianity to be questioned. For they are ill-prepared to answer such questions; they are ill-prepared to deal with a vision that is radically different from what they see today. And their only answer is to deny others the right to question; to accept as truth their words and their thoughts.
But when you read the Gospel and you hear what Jesus did, He challenged the people to question the vision of the future as it was presented to them. And he did more than challenge the people, He gave them a new vision.
Abram was offered a vision of the future, a vision that matched the stars in the sky. But for that vision to be fulfilled, it required that Abram moved from Ur to the Promised Land and that he accept the covenant with God. If Abram had not made that move, then our story could not have been told. Jesus knew what was literally around the corner but He also knew that if He didn’t make that journey, nothing would happen, His mission, His life would fail. And if His mission failed, then we would have never had the opportunity to have a vision of hope and promise.
This is not to say that this earth will not end as so many people proclaim that it will, in death and total destruction. But it will not be God’s wrath that will bring down this earth; it will be our own self-centeredness, our own arrogance, and our own ignorance.
There is an interesting difference in the earthquakes that struck Chile and Haiti last week. Understand that the Richter scale that is used to describe the strength of an earthquake is logarithmic; that means that a one-unit increase in measurement (say from 6 to 7) is a 10-fold increase in strength. A two-unit increase (from 6 to 8) is a 100-fold increase in strength.
So, the Chilean earthquake was far more powerful than the Haitian earthquake. But there was more damage and destruction in Haiti because the structures were not built to withstand any earthquake, let alone the one that actually struck. Because Chile has a history of being struck by very powerful earthquakes, the majority of structures are build with that in mind. The same can be said about the buildings in California; building that sustained the most damage in the last couple of earthquakes that struck the Golden State were probably not built to code.
We have written Haiti off as a poor country and we are not willing to put our time, energy, or money into this country, even though its geological history told us that an earthquake similar to the one that struck last month would actually occur. Our own arrogance and indifference to the people of Haiti is as much to blame for the death and destruction that struck that country as anything else. How we deal with what happens next, be it Haiti, Chile, or somewhere else, will speak volumes about our vision of the future.
Paul reminds us that those whose vision is only their world will find, in the end, only destruction. If I am who I say I am and I do nothing to end the hunger and the poverty and the oppression; if I do nothing to stop the violence and the oppression that is so much a part of this world, then I am a liar and a hypocrite. And I if use my faith and my religion for my own benefit and not for the benefit of others, then I can only expect what Jesus promised in Matthew 25 and Luke 16: 19 – 31.
Those whose vision is Christ will find the glory that was promised in the original Gospel message and throughout the words and letters of those who spread the word from the Galilee to the rest of the world. Those who left the Galilee had no idea what lie before them but they understood the message that had been given to them and what it could me to all the people. They began that journey on and with faith.
Ours is a journey done in faith, not necessarily in fact. It is done, not with a vision of today, but with a view far beyond tomorrow. It is a transforming journey where we cast aside that which we were and are in favor of the new life, the life proclaimed in Christ.
We have been given two visions of the future. One ends in death and destruction, not caused by God’s wrath but by our own indifference and unwillingness. The other vision offers hope and a promise for a new tomorrow; it can be reality if we are willing to accept the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity today to accept Christ as our Savior and begin that transformation. Each of us has the opportunity to see the vision of the future. The question will be what vision do we want to see?