[Propertalk] Proper 28 c 2016 - part 2

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's the second part

	These past weeks and months which culminated in the elections on
Tuesday and have produced Black Holes have created a lack of
knowledge, and an extreme lack of certainty, bringing such confusion
to the very places and people on whom we felt we could most depend.
There are tangible, unbearable tensions which make some doubt
relationships. Lives may be torn apart, mental and physical health
jeopardised because of the way that the picture and talk of the
street-roaming devils are being insinuated into our daily lives. Not
one familiar, secure stone seems to be being left on top of another.
Everything seems on the point of collapsing for people.

	The verses from Isaiah and Luke which we heard today are part of
biblical apocalyptic writings, descriptions of what is hidden about
the future, but which everyone wishes would be revealed.
Paradoxically, Jesus seemed to point to some things and suggest that
they were signs that God’s reign was to become visibly present in
creation. If that were the case, if the last days of creation as we
know were upon us, then it might make the stressful, the fearful, the
hopeless feelings a little more bearable. However, the other side of
the paradox is that Jesus said immediately that no one had a clue when
the last days will be. Not even He knows when that will occur. There
will ALWAYS be rumours of destruction; there will ALWAYS be people and
situations who seem to drag devastation in their wakes.

	Kenneth Bailey wrote that “We can affirm in quiet confidence that
the ship of history moves in the direction that God intends, even when
we live in the midst of destruction, horror and tragedy.” 3 In other
words, as we pray so often that God’s will will be done, and that
God’s reign will come to full fruition, how this comes about is
never clear. That’s the point of apocalyptic writing. It can never
be taken as a road map in the sense of saying that if the sky is
falling, if people have lost track of their humanity, that isn’t a
sure sign either that is bringing punishment on anyone or that things
are wrapping up. It’s a sign of the degraded way in which humans can
behave. It’s a sign of the way in which human beings can be filled
with fear for themselves and those whom they love. It’s a sign, said
Jesus, that we have to be the solace, the listening heart, the
grace-filled hand that reaches out to all for whom faith, and hope,
and love are in such short supply.

	My seven-year-old grandson, Joshua, is in a multi-language immersion
school in Philadelphia. He’s extremely bright. He’s extremely
compassionate and sensitive. He must get it from his mother! But this
means that he’s so agitated because so many of his close and
important friends in his class are living now with the uncertainty of
whether or not they’ll be rounded up as the Japanese Americans were
sixty-plus years ago; whether or not tables and desks of
seven-year-olds will be empty and he’ll lose the emotional and
social support he needs and that he can give.

	Real fears or not, Joshua, just like every one of us, doesn’t want
his world turned upside down, the building blocks of his life torn and
scattered. But he, and we, and countless others may not be able to
figure out how to deal with it. It may seem like the end of the world,
like the Apocalypse which is what the passages from Isaiah and Luke
both describe.

	This is not merely a matter for children either. In many ways,
they’re far more resilient than adults. There are people whom we
know, perhaps even some of our friends, who are wondering when and
where they’re going to find the hate-filled, venomously scrawled
letter shoved under their windshield wipers while they shop, or stop
for coffee, or, heaven forbid, while they worship in church. 

	Hell is very real for so many people, and little seems to be being
done to acknowledge this, to try to bring healing.

	 So what comes next?

	 That, surprisingly enough, depends on us – not on God.

	 As a friend from wrote from Texas, “How does The Episcopal Church
create a safe space for all those feeling most at risk in the wake of
this election – including Muslims, Jews?” 4 How DO we deal with
our questions, our fears, our feelings of emptiness? How do we refind
our security? How do we protect and encourage the Joshuas and their
classmates?

	 Well, Joshua’s mother wrote, “Walking through Penn's campus (on
Wednesday) I saw ‘Still We Rise’ on a giant banner across the
front of the women's center. I couldn't help but cry, and then smile,
and say, ‘Yes!’”

	The prophet and saint, Maya Angelou, wrote

	 "You may write me down in history
 With your bitter, twisted lies,
 You may tread me in the very dirt
 But still, like dust, I'll rise. …

	 Did you want to see me broken? 
 Bowed head and lowered eyes? 
 Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
 Weakened by my soulful cries. …

	 You may shoot me with your words,
 You may cut me with your eyes,
 You may kill me with your hatefulness,
 But still, like air, I'll rise. …

	 Out of the huts of history's shame
 I rise
 Up from a past that's rooted in pain
 I rise
 I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
 Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
 Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
 I rise
 Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
 I rise
 Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
 I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
 I rise
 I rise
 I rise." 5

	We need to renew our FHL shots. We need to banish the devils and all
signs of Hell from our surroundings. And we’re invited to commit to
such as our diocesan statement about any and all who are having such
trouble facing the devils trying to inhabit and harm them.

	For we must all rise. That is the will of God.

	NOTES:

	[1] “short stories by jesus” by Amy-Jill Levine.
HarperOne/HarperCollins, New York. © 2014, page 300.

	2 Amy-Jill Levine, Op. cit, page 300

	3 “_Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes”_ by Kenneth E. Bailey.
InterVaristy Press, Downers Grove, Illinois. © 2008. Page 115.

	4 Katie Sherrod.

5 FROM _“AND STILL I RISE”_ BY MAYA ANGELOU. COPYRIGHT © 1978 BY
MAYA ANGELOU. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF RANDOM HOUSE, INC. STILL I
RISE - POEMS | ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS - POETS.ORG 

	https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise [1]

	 

Links:
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[1] https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise

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