Know Justice, Know Peace | Seventh in the Series, Novel Attitudes: Eight Ways We Can Help Remake the World

We are now experiencing great outer energy directed against injustice. It’s needed. It’s right. And we must not let up until this Great Turning is realized. Yet, outer and societal change requires inner and personal change if we are to achieve what we need to achieve societally. This sermon on Matthew 5.9, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” confronts naive cries for “peace” without justice, and urges us to add to our outer action for justice the needed inner work on the traumas we bear. It takes communities of intention to create the safe spaces where this can happen.

The Beatitudes of Jesus are eight wisdom sayings that stand at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. They are not moral teachings as much as they are soulful riddles that invite the hearer into a new way of being human. They are an invitation to see, from the inside of our lives—from our souls—what it could mean to be truly human. At this time of such a massive reassessment of human life on this planet, the Beatitudes, what I call, "Novel Attitudes," could point the way to a better way of life for our communities and our world.

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Jeremiah’s poem is a difficult poem; it’s a twenty-six hundred year old prophetic rant against both the political and religious leaders of Judah, and its capital city, Jerusalem. With feisty rhetoric and an oratory that tilts toward mockery, the prophet, speaking the word of God, confronts the greed and corruption, the injustice and callousness of those who hold social power. Jeremiah paints a picture of a wounded nation where the powerful have enacted policies that benefit the rich, cut programs that benefited the poor, and who have modeled the worst kind of behavior, which, tragically, says Jeremiah, the population has largely imitated. “From the least to the greatest,” rants Jeremiah, “everyone is greedy for unjust gain” . . .

"All Lives Matter" is true, but this meme misses the point | #blacklivesmatter #protests #uprising

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Of course, what this meme tries to say is absolutely true. And maybe it's a well-meaning effort to rise above the tensions that divide us and recognize that we are one, human race. But well-meaning and true as it is, it obscures a deeper truth about the vulnerability of some who are part of that one race; it minimizes the need for us to stop the violence, prejudice, and injustices that endanger the lives of people of color.


Religious people cannot dismiss this call.


In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15). While the whole race (a single flock of one hundred sheep) mattered, there was one sheep that became particularly vulnerable and endangered. That one needed special advocacy and protection; that sheep needed someone who would focus every effort on rescuing and protecting it. The shepherd left the ninety-nine and went to save the one.
All lives matter, yes. But right now, the violence against black and brown people makes advocacy and protection on their behalf non-negotiable. Of course, violence is perpetrated against people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. But the disproportionate injustices toward people of color require us to do all we can to save them from all that endangers them. In doing so we save us all. If we do this, the "joy in heaven" (and on earth) will be eternal (Luke 15.7).


This is why we're rising up. The Lord of Life requires it.


As Jesus taught us, "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one who found themselves in danger, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one and save it?"


There is a danger in using this parable/metaphor: it could perpetuate the white savior complex that has often fostered an unconscious white supremacy; I have no intention of perpetuating that scourge. I simply want to counter the easy dismissal of the Uprising by white people who don’t understand the urgency of the movement; an urgency Jesus inspires. White people have too long kept this injustice alive; we have to aggressively help undo it.

The Rule of Reciprocity | Fifth in the Series, Novel Attitudes: Eight Ways We Can Help Remake the World

It’s Pentecost weekend. The rehearsal, worldwide, of the gift of the Spirit of God for the healing and wellbeing of the world. But we feel so terribly wounded and broken today. We are so terribly wounded and broken. The COVID19 disease and the dis-ease of racism are both pandemics that threaten life and society. This week another black man in America, George Floyd, was murdered by a Minneapolis cop, while begging for mercy. The nation is burning with rage. How can we talk of mercy in a society where mercy is denied so many people? I don’t know. But I know I must. I feel rage too. Mercy doesn’t come easy for me. And yet, Jesus calls me and us to it. I hope Jesus’ wisdom might help us forward. If it doesn’t, if we’re left to our own reactions and rage, there’s little hope for us. I pray on this weekend, that the Spirit will move among us and guide us toward a way to remake the a better world for all.

The Beatitudes of Jesus are eight wisdom sayings that stand at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. They are not moral teachings as much as they are soulful riddles that invite the hearer into a new way of being human. They are an invitation to see, from the inside of our lives—from our souls—what it could mean to be truly human. At this time of such a massive reassessment of human life on this planet, the Beatitudes, what I call, "Novel Attitudes," could point the way to a better way of life for our communities and our world.

1.

Since April 26th, we’ve been reading essentially the same text from the Gospel of Matthew. It’s a story and a collection of wisdom sayings we call the Beatitudes of Jesus. The word, beatitude, is related to the word, beatific. Beatific is an adjective; it means to be blissfully and blessedly happy. These wisdom sayings of Jesus are called Beatitudes because each of them begin with the word, “Blessed are,” which could also be “Happy are,” or “Blissful are.”

The particular wisdom saying we’re meditating on today could read, “Beatific are those who practice mercy, for they will receive mercy.”

“Blissful.” “Happy.” “Blessed.” Words that don’t fit very well with the way most of us feel these days. . . .

Goodness is Contagious | Fourth in the Series, "Novel Attitudes: Eight Ways We Can Help Remake the World"

The Beatitudes of Jesus are eight wisdom sayings that stand at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. They are not moral teachings as much as they are soulful riddles that invite the hearer into a new way of being human. They are an invitation to see, from the inside of our lives—from our souls—what it could mean to be truly human. At this time of such a massive reassessment of human life on this planet, the Beatitudes, what I call, "Novel Attitudes," could point the way to a better way of life for our communities and our world.

This sermon reflects on the contagiousness of contempt that’s affecting our society and the habits, practices, and assumptions that can counteract that dis-ease.

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For the last three years, ten friends have met every month for dinner and conversation. Last Sunday, we met again, over Zoom. I framed the conversation with two questions. The second question was this: “What are you doing now, because of the crisis, that you’d like to carry forward beyond the crisis?”

I wonder what you’d say. “What are you doing now, because of the crisis, that you’d like to carry forward beyond the crisis?” It’s a good question, a constructive question.

But it’s the first question I want to dwell on today. “What has surprised you about this crisis?” That is, what have you seen, said, heard, or experienced that you didn’t expect? . . .

Vulnerability is Strength | Third is the Series, "Novel Attitudes: Eight Ways We Can Help Rebuild the World"

The Beatitudes of Jesus are eight wisdom sayings that stand at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. They are not moral teachings as much as they are soulful riddles that invite the hearer into a new way of being human. They are an invitation to see, from the inside of our lives—from our souls—what it could mean to be truly human. At this time of such a massive reassessment of human life on this planet, the Beatitudes, what I call, "Novel Attitudes," could point the way to a better way of life for our communities and our world.

This sermon reflects on the overwhelming challenges we face today, not only the COVID19 crisis, but also the travesty of ongoing white privilege and its affect on violence against black and brown people and the disproportionate suffering in those communities. In the midst of outrage and fear, here is a timely call for another way forward in order to create a world our children and our children’s children will want to inherit.

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It’s been a grim week. I won’t catalog the statistics. It doesn’t help. Not really. We’re all aware to one degree or another of the mess we’re in. Some of us feel it acutely; others among us are defended against it or deny it.

I found myself near tears talking to one of you this week, recognizing the enormity of the problems we face. The revelations about the racially motivated killing of Ahmaud Arbery, and the failure of the criminal justice system to confront this chilling act, highlights the dangers and disparities and injustices so many Americans face, the complicity of those in power, and the polarization and powerlessness we feel. Outrage is building for so many reasons.

And now we sit with this biblical text, this saying of Jesus: “Blessed are the meek.” Jesus’ words seem outrageous. . . .