I have had several requests to post Sunday's sermon, so...here it is. Still, I must say that they are much better preached...enfleshed...filled with the Spirit in the moment. Preaching is a very incarnational thing...
"Once upon a time there was a thief. He wasn’t really good at it. Not a professional at all. He was just a poor man, with hungry children and a wife who worked hard. He worked sometimes, but more often than not there was no job to be had and so no food either for hungry mouths. It hurt him to see his wife and children suffer so much and made him angry that there was no pity in the kingdom, no kindness or generosity in his neighbors. He took a chance, a big chance, and stole some food. The king’s law was death by hanging if a thief was caught. He got away with it often. He took bread, apples, and flour when he could and sometimes a ribbon or two for the one he loved.
But he wasn’t good at it. He was just poor and hungry and desperate, and finally he got caught, with the bread in hand. He was jailed and sentenced to be hanged until dead, in public for all to see, as a warning to others. He was desperate, for life, for his family, and for their futures. In jail the night before the execution he told one of the guards in confidence that it was a shame that he would die tomorrow, for a secret, a great secret, and a skill would die with him. Too bad he couldn’t tell the secret to someone who could use it wisely or get it to the king, who certainly would be interested in it.
The jailer said that he’d be happy to take the secret of the dying man. And so the man told him: “I can take a pomegranate seed, plant it in the ground, water it, and make it grow so that it will bear fruit overnight. My father taught it to me, as his father taught him, for generations. But tomorrow it dies with me.”
The jailer could hardly believe his ears and immediately brought word to the king. The next day, before the execution the king arrived and had the poor man brought forward. “Let me see you do this marvelous thing,” the king commanded and so the man asked for a spade, dug a hole, asked for a pomegranate seed, and then turned to the king and spoke: “This seed can only be planted by someone who has never stolen anything in his life or someone who has never taken anything that did not belong to him by right. Of course, I am a thief, caught stealing bread for my children and wife, so I can’t plant it. You’ll have to have someone else do it.”
The king turned to his counselor and commanded him to plant it. The man froze and stuttered: “Tour majesty, I can’t”
“What do you mean you can’t?” the king uttered.
The counselor explained, “Once, when I was young, before I was in your employ, I took something from a house where I was staying. I returned it, of course, but I can’t plant it.”
The King was annoyed and turned to his treasurer and commanded him to plant it. The man went chalk white and shook. “I can’t, your majesty,” he confessed.
“What, you, too? What have you done? Have you stolen from me?”
“No, no, my king,” he protested, “but I work with figures, calculating all the time, and it’s easy to make mistakes, and I am forever trying to balance accounts, taking from here to put there. Whit huge sums of money, and deeds, contracts, and so on it’s easy to overlook something. Besides I often have to make deals with people so that better deals can be made later. It’s business, sire.”
The king turned to another, and instinctively the next man shrunk away from him. It was the poor man who spoke next. “Your majesty, perhaps you could plant it yourself.” This time it was the king who hesitated. So many things went through his mind. He remembered stealing from his father in anger, impatient to be king himself and wanting that power and freedom, that access to wealth. The poor man spoke boldly, “Your majesty, even you cannot plat the seed, you who are mighty with power over life and death; you who have wealth and much more than you need to live on; you who make laws that destroy even the poor who are desperately hungry and caught in the web of others’ greed and insensitivity. You can’t plant the seed. You are a thief. Why are you so hard on me, a poor man who stole bread to feed his family? You are going to hang me, leaving others in need with no recourse.”
The king stopped. He heard, thank heaven, and repented of his harshness and injustice, his callousness and disdain for others. He pardoned the man who reminded him to first change the laws and then to work at making life worth living for so many in his kingdom. The king was impressed with the poor man’s wisdom, cleverness, and understanding and took him into his employ. Things began to change…or so the story goes. Would that it were true for all those who hear this tale told today."
Story adapted and re-told from Megan McKenna,
“Advent, Christmas and Epiphany:
Stories and Reflections on the Sunday Readings”
It has been said that the spiritual journey most often begins in brokenness. Certainly for the thief and king in our story today this is true. It is also the model we find in our Gospel lesson for today. John the Baptist recognizes the brokenness in his society, in his people, and in the world they inhabit, and he calls them all to repent…to do things differently than they had been doing them.
There is great wisdom in this saying. Those who study human behavior say that we seldom will make lasting changes in our behavior until we must make changes to save our lives. Not only is this true for individuals, it is true for tribal groups and countries, too. John the Baptist, taking his cue from prophets before him issues the call, and the people sensing the truth in his words and fearing that once again they will be taken into exile, flock to be baptized.
Mary had heard the promise year’s before. Once she had accepted the commissioning to bear Jesus, the son of God, she set out to visit a distant relative. Once there, she revealed that she had indeed been blessed with the child who would once again change the course of the world. Mary’s song, as it is recorded for us in the Gospel of Luke, echoes the song of Hannah in 1st Samuel…and the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah:
Mary said, “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His handmaiden; for behold, for this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.” Luke 1:46-55
God will bring down the mighty and lift up the poor and marginalized. Those are the proud affirmations that Mary brings to us, and this is the leader for whom John the Baptist prepares us.
On this second Sunday in Advent we find ourselves in the desert with the Baptizer and the multitudes who have heard his call. But it is not enough for us to stay there; we are called to live in our own time and hear the voice of God for our own lives. Who are the poor and marginalized in our world that we are called to care for? What are the structures that must be changed in order for us to “prepare the way” for the reign of God to break into Lincoln NE, December 2010? Where are we and our society broken and of what do we need to repent?
Today we are taking an offering to care for those who are living with AIDS; we have called it an “AIDS Awareness Offering” because that is part of the purpose for gathering the money, but the purpose is to raise funds to care for those who suffer from this terrible disease. Raising awareness also helps us to address the issues that surround this marginalized population, both here and around the world. We invite you, not only to give, but to learn more about the work that is being done to care for those living on the edges of health and healing.
On Tuesday night, we have the opportunity to go and listen to Lincoln’s own herald; Nebraskans for Peace, Lincoln Chapter, has invited Beatty Brasch to share with us the face of poverty in Lincoln. At 7:00 p.m. you are all invited to go to the Center for People in Need on N. 27th Street and hear about what poverty looks like right here at home; you will have the chance to volunteer and help Beatty meet some of the need for local folks. I invite you to come and see the amazing work that she—and a whole host of others are doing to “fill the hungry with good things.”
The thief in the story raises the question of the fairness of the laws that condemn him. In doing so, he challenges the assumptions of his society. The birth of Jesus, born to a poor young mother who proclaims her place in changing the world, is set to help turn the world around. John the Baptist calls for us to repent—let’s join Mary in transforming evil and corrupt systems in our own time and place.
We give God our thanks and praise for the opportunity to be change agents in our world. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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