Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent 2008 (Year B)
at Trinity in Clanton, Alabama
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Psalm 126 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8,19-28
The Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon

Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Joy is the cry of the Third Sunday of Advent. This Third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, has historically been called Gaudete (Gaw-day-tay) Sunday. This Latin word "Gaw-day-tay" means "Rejoice!" and was taken from the first words of the Latin introit for the day "Rejoice in the Lord" "Gaw-day-tay en dominum." This is part of an ancient liturgy that we continue to use in our worship today.

During the past week, as I was spending time with our Scripture readings for this morning, I was reminded that scholars are not certain who wrote Isaiah 61, though it seems to be someone who has returned to Jerusalem and is part of the nation’s rebuilding. The powerful words are perhaps the Spirit of God calling this person, in a way reminiscent of the call of the eighth-century prophet in Isaiah 6. The substance of the call is to reclaim the Jubilee tradition of Leviticus 25. This tradition is based on the sovereignty and holiness of God and challenges God’s people to live socially and economically in a way consistent with God’s nature. The tradition’s specific platforms are radical, calling for structural change in the society and not simply charity. That means protecting the environment by letting land lie fallow, canceling debt, freeing slaves, redistributing resources, and sharing economic power in ways that avoid a permanent underclass.

Isaiah’s words are familiar because Luke 4 records Jesus’ use of them for his inaugural sermon in his hometown synagogue. Jesus reads the Isaiah text and proclaims: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (4:21). Whether he chooses the text because the passage reflects his understanding of his mission or because it is assigned him as part of the synagogue lectionary, the congregation reacts negatively. Turning from being glad to have a child of the church home, the crowd becomes a lynch mob wanting to throw the hometown kid off the cliff. Even though they aren’t rich, they have too much invested in the system to want such a radical agenda imposed on them.

The Jubilee tradition that Isaiah and Jesus reclaim is a clear call to mission for the Church today. It contains the vision for being and doing: for political liberation, economic reversal, and social revolution – a way of life that lets no one live without life’s necessities. Just as Jesus incarnates the Jubilee tradition, the same words challenge today’s Church, as Christ’s Body, to reappropriate this radical understanding of life in community. And as with Jesus, such structural change can create lynch mobs of those who, even if not wealthy, have investment in the status quo.

If Isaiah’s call to mission isn’t hard enough, God speaks later in the lesson: “For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing” (61:8). Covenant relationship evokes works of justice, emulating God’s central concern for the underdog and for justice. As Sharon Ringe writes: “The Jubilee traditions point to what happens whenever humankind encounters the factor of God’s sovereignty.”

These Jubilee traditions motivated the Episcopal Church at our 67th General Convention in New Orleans in 1982 to create what was described as a priority ministry commitment by this Church that is called “The Jubilee Ministry”. As stated in that year’s Resolution 80A, the Ministry of Jubilee in the Episcopal Church is an attempt at being “a Christian community in which the drama of the streets, and the inner silence of which God speaks, are bound together.” (The Standing Commission on The Church in Metropolitan Areas—1982)

In Jubilee Ministry we recognize that while we are called to feed the hungry, we are also equally called to address the cause of that hunger. Therefore, our goal is to know the difference and to be prepared to work for both charity and justice for the glory and honor of God.

It can be a pretty daunting call to ministry. For me, it is helpful to remember, for example, that some are called to be prophets, others teachers. We have to identify the needs, and then seek to discern those gifted or equipped to address those needs. We do not all have the temperament to contribute the same gifts, but we can all understand our work as fulfilling a common purpose to embrace the “least of these.”

So, what is the Mission of Jubilee Ministry? It is to make a direct and dynamic link between our theology and our ethics - said another way - the talk of our faith and the walk of our faith.

We do this by calling the church to live out its prophetic role of empowering local people to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God” (Micah 6:8) and by responding to the Gospel’s call to “feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned” (Matthew 25:35)

The work of a Jubilee Ministry Center, or Jubilee Parish, is connected to four primary ways in which we serve the least of those among us, which starts by meeting direct human need, and then continues by providing advocacy with poor and oppressed people to address the root causes of poverty and all its ramifications, empowerment of the population being served to support them in beginning to recover their sense of self-esteem and dignity, and evangelism by providing the opportunity for the Church to exercise the faith it proclaims in word and deed.

So, what does the work of a Jubilee Ministry look like in the Episcopal Church in 2008? It is “Feeding the Hungry” through daily meals that are prepared and delivered to people with HIV/AIDS in a lunch program provided at St. Andrea’s Church in Tucson, Arizona; it is “Clothing the Naked” at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Ada, Oklahoma where The Matthew 25 Mission provides Men’s Wear and Household Items; it is “Welcoming the Stranger” at the Refugee and Immigration Jubilee Center in Valladolid, Spain that provides services for immigrants from South America, as well as it is those caring for Children and Seniors at Episcopal Social Services in Kansas City, Missouri; it is “Caring for the Sick” at Naco Wellness Center Located on the Arizona/Mexico Border that is serving people on both sides of the international Border… and it is opening the doors of this church every 1st Saturday in Clanton, Alabama to welcome and provide food and hospitality to the poor, working poor, and hungry of Chilton County.

In contrast to Mark’s understanding that we encountered in last week’s lessons, the writer of the Gospel of John presents John the Baptist, not as the one calling for repentance, but as a witness. The one who comes baptizing denies being Elijah or the Christ or a prophet; rather he comes to prepare and give testimony – to witness.

For many Christians committed to living faithfully, giving verbal testimony or witness is difficult and often feels presumptuous. Yet John becomes the voice of promise, in a sense the voice of Scripture. He calls people to see and understand differently and to acknowledge the Word’s importance.

But John also knows how important it is to live that witness, to embody one’s words, to link the talk of our faith and the walk of our faith. When John, from prison, asks Jesus if he is “the one who is to come,” Jesus suggests that John look at what he does: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the poor have Good News preached (Matt 11:2-6 – again echoes of Isaiah 61). Deeds, as well as words, are testimony and witness.

Individuals and communities today seek to live into the biblical Jubilee tradition and give testimony in word and deed…

• through Communities that embody a life together that is nonhierarchical and inclusive of all God’s children, where the words of the faith come alive through experience;
• through Partnerships in which poor and wealthy people acknowledge their need for one another and to share one another’s gifts, insights, and material goods;
• through a Life lived for “the least of our brothers and sisters,” where none go without food or housing;
• through Acknowledgement of the Christ encountered in those who are poor and hurting.

In such transformational living there is “a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning” (Isa 61:3). The cry of the Third Sunday of Advent arises: Rejoice!

Thanks be to God! Amen.

School of the Americas Watch & the Pope

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I was with 20,000 other folks gathered again outside the gates of Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA for the vigil to shut down the School of the Americas. Or, as activists call it, "The School of the Assassins."

The SOA is a torture-training school-right here on US soil and funded by our tax dollars-where Latin America soldiers are taught counterinsurgency tactics, psychological warfare and Abu-Ghraib-style torture techniques. The School of the Americas Watch, a grassroots organization dedicated to closing the SOA and changing oppressive US foreign policy, has been holding these vigils for the past 18 years, the first one, with only 10 people. The Saturday rally and Sunday vigil features spoken testimony from torture survivors, family members whose loved ones were killed by SOA graduates, the sole survivor of a massacre, elected officials, actors, and activists from around the world, all interspersed with the most music, spoken word and visual arts you've ever seen at a demonstration.

Sign the Petition to President- Elect Obama to End Torture and Close the SOA, and come join us next November!

Now, for the Pope part...

The Friday of this year's vigil was also the day that SOAW founder, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, was to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Not for standing up to the military or to the US government, for that matter, but for participating in a Mass to ordain a woman priest.

Fr. Roy delivered the homily at that ceremony in August, saying:
"Sexism is a sin. . . The hierarchy will say, 'It is the tradition of the church not to ordain women.' I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and often heard, 'It is the tradition of the South to have segregated schools.' It was also 'the tradition' in our Catholic church to have the Black members seated in the last five pews of the church. No matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always wrong and immoral."

In October, the church hierarchy sent Fr. Roy a letter demanding he recant his position or be excommunicated. But, Fr. Roy didn't back down. He wrote a letter in response and he and others have pointed out the disturbing fact that, while it took the Vatican twelve years to begin to respond to the sexual abuse of nearly 5,000 children by US priests (with none of the priests, nor the bishops who remained silent about the abuse, being excommunicated) it took only three months for the Vatican to respond to Fr. Roy's support of women's ordination with the threat of excommunication.

We haven't heard conclusively whether the excommunication has gone through. Perhaps the media attention, the letter writing, the emailing (Did you know you can email the Pope? ) and the petitions are having an effect. We think the slogan of the Women's Ordination Conference's petition in support of Fr. Roy says it best:

"Break the Silence. Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling."

SOA Pilgrimage of Resistance (2008)

a weekend of nonviolence training with Janet Chisholm, sitting and learning at the feet of Jon Sobrino, sharing meal and conversation with the peace and justice community of the Episcopal Church in Columbus, and sharing in the funeral procession and vigil with 20,000 faithful people... love and prayers, steve

Baltimore Airport

Well, it was proved true to me again that you never know who you might encounter while waiting to make a connecting flight on Southwest Airlines.

I was early for a flight that I had about a two and a half hour layover for, and the boarding area was packed because the previous flight had just been cancelled because Southwest had a part to fix a broken seat but didn't have a technician certified to do the install. While those folks were settling in for the next hour or so that it would take for the next plane to show up, I found the one vacant seat over by the glass and as I was reaching for my iPod and the new Jon Sobrino book I glanced over to the cadre that seemed to be spreading out in the area of seats to the right of me. As I watched with the kind of disinterested curiosity of one with hours of travel done and hours more to come, I noticed someone that I'd met in 1974 striding through the crowd and towards me... or more particularly to the group of young adults that had spread out and were now deep into their technology and undertaking what seemed to be one text or call or email after another without seeming let up.

Then I stood and smiled and greeted Ralph Nader letting him know that a conversation that we'd had, along with Dr. Sidney Wolfe, back in 1974 had helped me understand what it means to work unselfishly on behalf those who are marginalized and disenfranchised. A young man stood next to me as I made my introduction and expression of appreciation to Mr. Nader, at first I think to make sure that I wasn't a complete nutjob and to also remind me that if it wasn't for Mr. Nader's tireless efforts on our behalf over the years that we wouldn't be reimbursed by the airlines for getting bumped from a flight. I smiled and simply said that I'd been a fan of Mr. Nader's work for a very long time. He seemed satisfied enough to sit down, but close by in case of ... whatever.

So, for the next half hour, with one interruption for a telephone interview with a news radio station in St. Louis, we talked about peace, justice and nonviolence in the context of the current state of the world and the presidential election. I told him that I'd appreciated his willingness to appear in a theater of the absurd like Bill Maher's show the Friday before, and that for me it seems an increasingly difficult task to 'mine' the nuggets from what the media is willing to share with us. He reflected on what it was like having to go on Conan and have to be part of a skit with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. We talked about his being on the ballot in 46 states, or maybe 45, guess I should check, but I wasn't interested in engaging him on the relevancy of it this time since it really is about raising the issues that are important to so many of us. I did tell him that I helped put up signs for his campaign in Alabama in 2000 and seemed to enjoy that.

Then, he asked why I was there and told him about going to facilitate nonviolence training at Yale Divinity School starting the next day. He then reminisced on two things in that context. First, he was the person who did the last interview with William Sloane Coffin before he died. The second item that he talked about was a book that had made an impression on him many years before entitled "The Small Community: Foundation of democratic life" that was written in 1942 by Arthur E. Morgan and the link is to his organization that is still doing the work of finding community solutions today.

Finally, I asked him what he would like me to particularly share with people from our brief time together that morning. He said "Two things, connect with the veterans and keep up a public witness."

Thank you Mr. Nader, I will, and God speed as you continue your faithful and persistent witness.

I found myself this morning quoting this poem and made the comment that it is a poem that has continued to inspire me for I am indeed 'a fool who hath loved his folly' ... peace, steve

The Fool
by Padraic Pearse

Since the wise men have not spoken, I speak that am only a fool;
A fool that hath loved his folly,
Yea, more than the wise men their books or their counting houses or their quiet homes,
Or their fame in men's mouths;
A fool that in all his days hath done never a prudent thing,
Never hath counted the cost, nor recked if another reaped
The fruit of his mighty sowing, content to scatter the seed;
A fool that is unrepentant, and that soon at the end of all
Shall laugh in his lonely heart as the ripe ears fall to the reaping-hooks
And the poor are filled that were empty,
Tho' he go hungry.
I have squandered the splendid years that the Lord God gave to my youth
In attempting impossible things, deeming them alone worth the toil.

Was it folly or grace? Not men shall judge me, but God.
I have squandered the splendid years:
Lord, if I had the years I would squander them over again,
Aye, fling them from me !
For this I have heard in my heart, that a man shall scatter, not hoard,
Shall do the deed of to-day, nor take thought of to-morrow's teen,
Shall not bargain or huxter with God ; or was it a jest of Christ's
And is this my sin before men, to have taken Him at His word?
The lawyers have sat in council, the men with the keen, long faces,
And said, `This man is a fool,' and others have said, `He blasphemeth;'
And the wise have pitied the fool that hath striven to give a life
In the world of time and space among the bulks of actual things,
To a dream that was dreamed in the heart, and that only the heart could hold.

O wise men, riddle me this: what if the dream come true?
What if the dream come true? and if millions unborn shall dwell
In the house that I shaped in my heart, the noble house of my thought?
Lord, I have staked my soul, I have staked the lives of my kin
On the truth of Thy dreadful word. Do not remember my failures,
But remember this my faith
And so I speak.

Yea, ere my hot youth pass, I speak to my people and say:
Ye shall be foolish as I; ye shall scatter, not save;
Ye shall venture your all, lest ye lose what is more than all;
Ye shall call for a miracle, taking Christ at His word.
And for this I will answer, O people, answer here and hereafter,
O people that I have loved, shall we not answer together?

Preaching Peace and Nonviolence at the Auburn UUF

On Sunday, September 28th, I was invited by the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Auburn Peace and Justice groups to offer my point of view on living a life of peace and nonviolence during the Fellowship's principal Sunday service. The picture to the right was taken after the service with the Fellowship's minister, the Rev. Diana Jordan Allende.

The AUUF has posted this sermon as a podcast and it is available for listening at http://www.auuf.net/mp3/sept282008.mp3. It was a particular blessing to have Ruby Sales, of Spirit House in Columbus, Georgia, come to be present and then to have her share a response (part of the UUF tradition) after, and offered as part of, the sermon.

So, for those who might be curious as to what I might have to say to an entirely 'friendly' audience, I thought that this might be of some interest.

Love and prayers, Steve

Kirtan at Heartwood Yoga

Had a great evening of kirtan chant at Heartwood Yoga in Birmingham last night with Shantala (Benjy and Heather Wertheimer) and Jacqueline Westhead who's with them for this leg of their tour.

So, what's kirtan chant? One definition that seems to describe my experience best, says "Kirtan is the chanting of sound syllables, and is an active meditation that may precede a period of silence. It is often in Sanskrit, but may be in any language. Kirtan can be practiced alone, or in a group... Chanting the mantra sounds of kirtan elicits a feeling of well-being, calmness and harmony. Instruments for kirtan include the harmonium, rhythm instruments, and others, or just voices." Since for some it is also, or particularly, about a part of their spiritual practice, I thought it appropriate to include another definition that seems to fairly describe my beginning of that understanding "The yogic practice of kirtan chanting brings together devotional bhakti yoga, powerful mantra yoga, and profound jnana yoga, along with pranayama breath yoga, yogic posture asana, as well as the crown jewel of raja yoga..."

I went because I enjoy both plainsong and anglican chant, and because Heartwood is where I receive instruction in my yoga practice and I want to support them. The two plus hours of mostly call and response chant was way for me to begin to connect with that part of the yogic tradition. The challenge for me in the kirtan are the textual references to the divine spark within or of god dwelling within us. This is a bit gnostic for me, which is a heresy that can be seductive because it is based in part on a knowledge of transcendence that is arrived at by way of interior, intuitive means.

Of course, I know that the translations of the Sanskrit are being offered are from the translator's point of view. Though I don't anticipate learning Sanskrit to delve into the subtler and deeper understandings of the source material, I find that I do mentally edit in my own understandings of other possible translations. That instead of a divine spark or god within, it may be that, as in the gesture of Namaste, we are acknowledging the soul in one by the soul in another in a place of connection and timelessness that is free from the bonds of ego. I think that there's some truth in the understanding that we are all one when we live from the heart.

For me, the kirtan was great but the highlight was Jacqueline Westhead leading us in K’riyah, a chant in Call and Response form where one uses the breath and silence between chants to guide us. Every exhale is a practice in humility and every inhale is an act of receiving. From the silence we can know what it is to hear and respond from an authentic space in the heart. As Jacqueline writes,

"Listening and Love are at the center of Jewish prayer. The Shema with the call to listen, and the embracing of divine oneness, followed by the V’ahavta with a declaration to love.

"Devotional chant is a path of love and listening. Through chanting, the Love that is present in everyone’s heart is awakened and one can realize their innate connection to the Divine.

"Devotion is the act of deep, steady affection or faithfulness and the path of devotion is one of the most direct routes to an inner experience of G-d."

So, you can probably tell, I liked the kirtan but loved the K’riyah.

Tonight I was reminded again that chant opens our hearts to a natural flow of devotion that can be an aid for us on our journey to seek understandings. Devotional chant such as kirtan, K’riyah or Taize seem to exist in the simple acts of devotion, surrender, and intention. The combination of these allows us to clear our hearts and minds to receive and transform. This practice asks you to show up with a desire to open, listen, and love.

Namaste

Our Journey for Peace on Capitol Hill

It has already been three weeks since we were led by faith and conscience to the nation’s capital to pray for peace.

It was a profound experience to be numbered among the hundreds of us who prayed in houses of worship across Washington; who huddled amid the Upper Senate Park torrent; and who processed to the Hart Senate Office Building.

We later learned that when the Olive Branch delegation met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s aide, he said that one of the most important things the peace movement could do was civil disobedience. “Keep it up!” he said.

His eyes widened when the delegation let him know that, at that very moment, we were doing just that.

But, in fact, “civil disobedience” does not capture what we were about. We were, instead, bringing the prayer for compassion and justice to one of our country’s centers of power. Prayer delivered in person. With longing. With anguish. With composure. With lilting song. A circle of prayer. A quiet gesture of true obedience, not disobedience.

In the next months, we will be exploring what our next steps will be for our faith-based movement for peace in Iraq. I am thankful for those who witness – and look forward to our future journey of prayer and action.

PEACE ACTIVISTS WORSHIP, PRAY, GET ARRESTED

Forty-Two Arrested for Civil Disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC, March 7, 2008 -- More than forty religious leaders and faith-based peace activists were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon for their non-violent witness to end the war in Iraq. Hundreds of people assembled earlier in the afternoon for a public demonstration against the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, and thousands of worshippers gathered at noon Friday for services calling for peace and an end to the war in Iraq.

The arrests came at the end of a day of worship and prayer. Following noon-time services in ten different houses of worship in Washington, worshippers processed in the rain to Upper Senate Park for an interfaith witness near the U.S. Capitol. In the midst of a driving rain, leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Unitarian traditions insisted that people of faith will be relentless in encouraging their political leaders to take bold, unequivocal action for peace.

Multi-faith delegations from the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership, the organizing coalition of the afternoon’s events, met with high level staffers from both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s offices. The religious leaders expressed grave concern that there must be both a clear exit strategy from Iraq and a regional, multi-lateral effort at development and diplomacy to bring about genuine security.Participants from across faith boundaries are clearly united in expressing five core convictions:

• The war in Iraq must end and diplomacy must replace the threat of war with Iran.
• We must provide far better support to our returning soldiers.
• We must commit to the long-term work of development in Iraq.
• There can be no equivocation in our renunciation of all use of torture.
• We must commit real resources to justice in our own communities in the U.S.

Among the forty-two people who were arrested were:

• Lois Baker, who is 86 years old, a World War II Veteran, great-grandmother, and committed Presbyterian Peacemaker.
• Joan Nicholson, 73 years old and infamous for her role in the legal decision Nicholson v. United States, which established the right to peaceful demonstrations on Capitol Hill.
• Will Covert, a Vietnam Veteran and member of Veterans for Peace.
• Khristine Hopkins, a strong advocate for housing and the environment, and traveled from Cape Cod for her second year in a row to join Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.
• Eighteen members of St. Luke Presbyterian Church traveled together from Minnesota to participate in the faith-based witness. Seven were arrested as they knelt in the atrium of the Hart Building to pray.
• Six students came from Hastings College in Nebraska, and three chose to risk arrest. Nathan Tramp said that he “came to learn a prayerful attitude toward the work of the peace movement, and to better discern how to make peace building a greater part of my life.”
• The Rev. Steve Shanks, deacon from Birmingham, Alabama and member of the National Executive Committe of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.

Steve runs, and survives, the BE5K!

This February I ran my first 5K. It was a lot of fun and hope that I improve my finish time at the next one. As you can tell, it was a bit chilly this morning with temperatures at race time just above freezing but after the first mile or so I realized that next time I need to spend more time talking to more experienced runners so that I can plan my layers more effectively.

All in all, it was an absolutely beautiful day, crisp and clear, and the post-race included heaping mounds of chicken biscuits, apples, and bananas along with free smoothies, vitamin water, and luna bars... it was a good day.

Coverage of Kennedy Endorsements for Obama

"I feel change in the air"