[N.B. This is the sermon
I preached for Pentecost 8, August 11, 2019 at St. Richard’s Church, Winter
Park, FL. Text: Isaiah 1:1; 10-20]
Today’s
Hebrew Scripture lesson from the prophet Isaiah could hardly be more timely.
The prophet has a message for us today that we need to hear both as a nation
and as a parish. But to get to that message we need a little context. And we
will need to rethink some of what we think we already know about the material
he references.
It is in
Babylon that these prophetic writers would try to make sense of their exile
from their homeland. And, as a means of insuring that the memory of their people
would survive, the Hebrew scribes will begin collecting, compiling, editing and
adding to their sacred literature during this period. In many ways, we owe much
of what became our Hebrew Scriptures to the Babylonian exile.
While we
think there were three different sets of writers whose work will ultimately
compose the Book of Isaiah, it is the first Isaiah who is responsible for over
half of the total book including the portion we have heard today.
First
Isaiah’s agenda is simple: We must explain why the kingdoms of Israel and Judah
have fallen to outside invaders and their Temples destroyed. Human beings always seek to understand why
tragedy has befallen them. Suffering without reason is seen to be unbearable by
most people. And so Isaiah sets out to explain why a people to a covenant with
G-d to protect them have been defeated and taken into exile.
This
first chapter begins with a reference to both Sodom and Gomorrah, the infamous
cities of the plains that were destroyed by G-d for their wickedness: Isaiah
bellows “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the
teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!” Here the prophet is using these legendary ill-fated
cities as stand-ins, comparing Judah to Sodom and Israel to Gomorrah.
But why
does he do that? What’s he trying to tell us?
To get to
that we must look at the Sodom narrative from Genesis with fresh eyes. Most of
us think we know what that story is about. It has long been used as one of the poorly
interpreted clobber verses against gay people for many centuries. In fact, it
lends itself poorly to any kind of sweeping statement about sexual orientation
or behavior.
Sodom, Gomorrah
and the other Cities of the Plain were located near the southern shore of the
Dead Sea on ancient trade routes that used the coastal plains of today’s Israel
as their means of travel between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. Indeed,
it is this same route that our species homo sapiens trod in our
departure from our origins in Africa to populate the rest of the world.
Trade
routes depended upon lodging and food being available in the towns the traders
visited. There were no Motel 8s or MacDonalds along the way. If trade was to
occur, there had to be people like Lot willing to provide overnight shelter and
meals.
But these
visitors to Sodom, who later turn out to be angels, have come into a troubled
region. The residents in Sodom are restive, insecure, seeking to hold onto a
fragile regional dominance and thus unwilling for anyone new to come in to
challenge that dominance. When the men of the town hear there are out-of-towners
at Lot’s house, they arrive in mass with the intent of showing them who is in
control in this town. And in toxic patriarchal honor/shame cultures, there are
few means to accomplish that more effectively than subjecting them to sexual
violence.
Here is
where we need to unlearn some of what we think we know about Sodom. The Sodom
story is not about sexual orientation or behavior. It is about power,
domination and the violence used to insure the same. More importantly, it is
about the failure to treat visitors with respect and to protect those who are
vulnerable from indignities. Sadly, according to the prophet Isaiah, this event
was not the exception, it was consistent with a much larger pattern.
Isaiah compares
Jerusalem to Sodom for its failure to “seek justice, rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Its attempts to win G-d’s favor
through lavish Temple offerings and a worship ritual that served the egos of
the well-fed and powerful while excluding the poor had failed to win G-d’s
favor:
Isaiah
says “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the
Lord….bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me….I cannot
endure solemn assemblies with iniquity….” In short, self-focused piety and
self-serving worship are not what G-d is looking for. G-d desires a people who
live into their duties to others, particularly the vulnerable and the
powerless.
Here is
the point we might examine the attitudes and behaviors of our own time and of
our countrymen and women. In Sodom, there were people traveling long distances from
other countries to a place where they are at the mercy of the residents who
live there. Instead of the hospitality and safety that they should have been
able to expect, they are treated with disrespect, injustice and subjected to
potential violence.
Any of
that sound familiar?
Moreover,
those who would inflict that violence upon them are clearly insecure men who
feel compelled to show everyone who’s in control. And they are willing to use violence
and deadly force to do just that.
In the
wake of two solid weeks of gun violence, that should sound very familiar.
So how
does G-d feel about the willingness to acquiesce to injustice, oppression, the
willingness to ignore the plight of the vulnerable, to look the other way when
that occurs through violence? Again, let’s remember that Isaiah is using this
story to explain why both Israel and Judah have been conquered by invading
armies and its best and brightest taken into exile. Bear in mind that when there
is a high level of internal dissension within a country, such nations often
have a fairly brief life expectancy.
Clearly Isaiah
has something of importance to tell us this day as people of a nation. But
Isaiah also has something to tell us this day as a people of a parish who swim
against this tide of angry xenophobia and the violence it spawns. Isaiah has
made it clear what G-d does not accept: injustice, oppression, disregard for
the vulnerable. What might a place look like that embodies the opposite, living
into a calling to seek justice, confront oppression and embrace the vulnerable?
I think I
have an idea.
All told,
about 2/3 of those present that day engaged in some form of commitment or
recommitment to the church. I find that absolutely amazing. Indeed, I’ve never
seen that many commitments to the church at a single service in all of my days
as an Episcopalian including eight years at the Cathedral downtown.
But what makes
this particularly amazing is the context in which it occurred. This is a parish
that has borne the wrath of a diocese in which angry men insist on showing
everyone they’re still in control. While their actions have not manifest in
physical violence, the refusal to respect the dignity of those with whom they
disagree has evidenced no small amount of interpersonal and spiritual violence.
Our parishioners and our clergy have been talked down to like children from the
podium at diocesan convention. Our clergy are largely snubbed by fellow clergy
in the diocese, a total failure of collegiality. Our parish is routinely spoken
of with contempt by many of our fellow Episcopalians in Central Florida. All of
this because this parish insists upon living into what it sees as its calling
from G-d to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with G-d.
And yet,
in the face of that oppressive context, at the invitation of an understanding
bishop, nearly 100 people stepped forward to reaffirm their commitment to a
parish whose mission statement is to discover G-d’s love, change our lives and
change the whole world.
There are
plenty of examples of injustice, oppression and willingness to ignore the needs
of the vulnerable in our world today. So when justice, dignity and love become known
to be the marks of a human community, it’s hardly surprising that people of
good faith will want to be a part of it. Indeed, at the end of the Book of
Isaiah, the prophet predicts that a restored Judah, willing to live into its
covenant of justice, dignity and love, will be wildly successful:
“Nations will
stream to your light,” he says.
In the
Baptismal rite we used at the service three weeks ago, we all made a series of
promises regarding the way we would live our lives individually and
collectively. I believe they capture the call of Isaiah to be a beloved
community. This morning I close with the last two of those promises and I ask
you to respond once again with “I will with God’s help.”
Brothers
and Sisters, will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your
neighbor as yourself?
People: I will, with God's help.
Will
you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of
every human being?
People: I will, with God's help.
Let
us Pray:
Grant
to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are
right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live
according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida
If the unexamined life is
not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or
political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in
sound bites.
For what does G-d
require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with
your G-d? (Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)
Do not be daunted by the
enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly
now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to
abandon it. - Rabbi
Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the
Jewish Sages (1993)
© Harry Coverston
2019
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