[Propertalk] Proper 22 c 2016 - part 2

[Robert P Morrison]

	Part 2

	 But let’s be honest. There ARE times when we feel that, somehow,
even The Holy One has left us. And who could blame God? All those
warnings, all those promptings to care for others as well as
ourselves, to see ourselves as part of ever-increasing circles of
community; there are times when we let these prompts slip by and we
forget all the connections we have. The pain gets to us. Or is it
self-pity?

	 Babylon, then as now, was a city set with glorious potential. It
could sustain millions. It could offer water, food, entertainment –
just about whatever one might wish. Yet the prisoners and refugees
couldn’t stop thinking about the past. And, as they dwelt on that in
the worst possible sense, they reached one of the most horrible
scenarios of the history of God’s people. They allowed themselves to
think of no one but themselves – not even of God … THAT line was
just an excuse; they thought only of what they believed they deserved
and they turned every last ounce of poisonous venom they could muster
on others, especially those whom they thought were the cause of
everything evil and disruptive. They covered over their own
waywardness, and they lashed out. They wanted every last person whom
they thought had crossed them to be exterminated. They even addressed
the God whom they chose to ignore, and invoked God to smash the heads
of every baby every rock, or stone, or wall that could be found.

	 Can you imagine the depths of the hate of these people? They
couldn’t, they wouldn’t, see a scintilla of worth in anyone who
didn’t kowtow to them. They were totally blind to their own
responsibilities.

	 Now THAT would keep me awake at night, would make me sweat buckets,
if only I saw how much I’d fallen away from God, and blamed everyone
else.

	 What disturbing about the terrible outburst of the people of Judah
twenty-five hundred years ago is that it’s never stopped.

	 Today, this very day, children are not only being talked in exactly
the same way, they’re being smashed, along with their mothers and
fathers – in Syria, in Sudan and South Sudan, in countries across
Central Africa, in South and Central America, and throughout the
countries of Israel and Palestine from which those original captives
had been taken to Babylon.

	 And the rhetoric in this country, the threats of bodily harm, the
seemingly endless polarisation, the killing of children here: when
will it sop?

	 If it IS to stop, it HAS to stop right here, with me, with you, with
those around us, those to whom we talk and with whom we interact.

	 Time and again, Jesus talked of His Peace being with us. We repeat
this in liturgy after liturgy. We HAVE to show that we have the faith
to say, “No! I won’t succumb to the nightmares. Somehow, I’ll go
to that place, the place Laurie Gudim called “that place where God
dwells and all we belong together.’ And, starting there, I’ll work
to end the nightmares, the awake-jolting cold sweats.”

	 This afternoon, we take time and energy to acknowledge God’s
sovereignty over all of and all in creation when we remember the words
attributed to St. Francis: “Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is
sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to
console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” 2

	 Then, this evening, at sundown, we remember, with our Jewish sisters
and brothers, the fresh start of Rosh Hashanah, the new year.

	 Jesus urges us to keep hold of what may seem like the smallest art
of faith so that terror, abuse, warfare, everything demeaning, WILL be
overcome. At the same time, Jesus reminds us that there is no place on
earth where the Love of God cannot reach us.

	 All it may take is a bit of time before we see, and hear, and
comprehend this.

	 So don’t ever give up. Jesus is depending on us! No more
nightmares! 

	NOTES:

[1] “SPEAKING TO THE SOUL: MICHAELMAS [1]”  SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 _BY
LAURIE GUDIM: EPISCOPAL CAFé
_HTTP://WWW.EPISCOPALCAFE.COM/SPEAKING-TO-THE-SOUL-MICHAELMAS/ [2]

	2 “_Prayer attributed to St. Francis”, “Book of Common
Prayer”_, Church Publishing Inc., New York, © 1979 page 833.



Links:
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[1]
http://mail2.charter.net/HTTP://WWW.EPISCOPALCAFE.COM/SPEAKING-TO-THE-SOUL-MICHAELMAS/
[2]
http://mail2.charter.net/HTTP://WWW.EPISCOPALCAFE.COM/SPEAKING-TO-THE-SOUL-MICHAELMAS/

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