Re-posintg a sermon passed on to me, from Rev. Frank J. Alagna, Holy Cross, Santa Cruz Episcopal Church. He concludes where I have been thinking: Our most urgent task is to ready our selves for non-violent resistance. My own homily for today, same readings, will follow (already posted on the hermitage blog too).
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Not
One Stone Will Be Left Upon Another – All Will Be Torn Down
Last Sunday I preached a
sermon about our responsibility as disciples of Jesus to affirm the priorities
of the Kingdom of God and to advance what is right, good and holy in the public
square. This past Tuesday the nation, at
least in the majority vote of the electoral college, made a choice for what is
wrong, bad and clearly unholy.
Let us be clear that there is
no ambiguity in the gospel about those things that are counter Kingdom.
- assaults upon women, their
dignity and their rights;
- racism and all forms of
discrimination against any minority group;
- the scapegoating of any of
God’s children;
- violence and any and all
encouragements to violence,
- nativism and isolationism
that would disengage us from the global relational mutuality which defines our shared
humanity;
- a failure to care for the
poor, the sick, and not to welcome the stranger among us or at the gate;
- a disregard for the care of
our environmental home;
- and putting government at
the service of self-interest and corporate greed rather than at the service of
the common good.
There is no ambiguity in the
gospel that all these are wrong, bad and unholy and an election does not change
any of this.
Obviously there are some good
people who in good faith actually believe that this man will affect changes
that will improve their tomorrow. But on
Tuesday did we not also see a staggering number of people in this nation
project their dark side and invest leadership in a man with no demonstrated character and most certainly a
false prophet?
False prophets are those
demagogues who appeal to popular passions and prejudices and stoke fear,
identify scapegoats, inspire hatred and incite to violence. This was clearly the strategy of the
president-elect. His words were chosen
to orchestrate what was a cacophony of sheer ugliness. It should come as no surprise that on
Thursday the KKK announced plans to hold a parade and victory rally in North
Carolina.
Can we be so naïve as to
believe that the winner will dance to a tune other than the raucous song that
he has been singing on the trail for the last two years? Personal change that we desire does not come
easy. I assure you that a character that
has been fashioned over a lifetime will not be changed by an election to public
office. We just don’t work that way. History knows elected popes who have been
despicable reprobates.
Recently a good Pope named
Francis, warned against false prophets.
He identified false prophets as those, “Who exploit fear and
hopelessness, who sell magic formulas of hatred, cruelty, selfish welfare and
an illusory security that seeks safety in physical or social walls - walls that enclose some and banish others.”
The Pope went on to say that there come to be two imprisoned
groups, “Walled citizens, terrified on
one side,” and “the excluded, exiled,
and even more terrified on the other.”
Francis concluded by asking the question, “Is that the life that our Father God wants
for His children?” He ended his address
with the admonition, “Dear brothers and sisters, do not be fooled."
The man who was just elected
to be the leader of the most powerful nation in the world has never served
anyone’s interests but his own during the first 71 years of his life. And he makes no apologies for this.
It is an accepted truth of
psychology that the best indicator of future performance is past behavior, and
in this case the strength of this prediction has been amplified with promises
to remake this nation in his own disfigured image. The demagoguery displayed in this race for the
White House can only persist and intensify.
And given his party’s newfound majority in congress there will be few
obstacles or checks to its advance.
While Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” And while He identified the archenemies of
God and of God’s children, Jesus never instructed His disciples to, “Love the
demons.” Rather Jesus admonished His
disciples to, “Resist what is evil.”
And He charged and empowered them to drive out demons, to expel and exorcise
them.
Demons have no rights in God’s reign and Jesus showed them no
respect. Jesus always commands them to
depart. At one point in the gospel
story, a legion of demons were expelled into a herd of swine and driven over a
cliff to their death in the sea below.
So what do we do in the face
of what is and what will continue to be a renewed assault on the Kingdom of God
and its priorities.
We first of all must realize
that this is not something new and that we have been here before.
In this morning’s gospel
Jesus speaks prophetically about the destruction of the temple. For His audience, the temple was not just one
of many places of worship. It was the
only place of worship, for it was the only place on earth where God deigned to
dwell. And so for the believing Jew, the destruction of the temple represented
utter and complete destruction and terminal desolation. No temple, no God, no hope.
The human family has known
and undoubtedly will continue to know experiences of unimaginable destruction
that reverberate to a place of desolation and that would vanquish and gut the
human spirit. Such is the experience
being registered by too many these days.
In our lifetime, too many of
these spirit desolating episodes have commanded our attention - From the
Holocaust, to the Stalinist purge of the Ukraine, to the Cambodian killing
fields, to Bosnia and to present Syrian disaster.
Jesus did not promise us a
demon free world, but He certainly did entrust us with the ministry of exorcism
and the power to affect the expulsion of evil forces.
So how do we exercise this
ministry in the present hour?
Well, our only response
cannot be fear, certainly not capitulation to the fear that engenders paralysis
and despair unto death. Disciples of
Jesus do not choose nor live by fear but rather by faith.
Nor can we merely quite our
troubled souls with calls to prayer. Not
that we should not pray, but let our prayer be grounded in reality. Let us not pray that by some miracle, wisdom
will enter the mind of a fool, nor that by some miracle right judgment and good
behavior will come forth from an adult addicted to his adolescence. What we should pray for is the grace of
repentance and conversion, for without these this one who presents himself as a
public reprobate will never evidence wisdom or be capable of right action. So
pray that this man will be moved by God to face and own his sinfulness which
has been so visible in the distasteful, disrespectful and disgusting words and
actions he has directed against so many, and will seek God’s forgiveness and
the forgiveness of the many he has hurt and the many more he intends to harm.
Moving forward he will be the
commander and chief of an army of allied haters who will happily participate in
victimizing innocent men, women and children because of their race, religion,
nationality, citizenship status and sexual and gender identity. When this brand expresses itself let us
remember that we have no obligation to listen to hateful speech, nor to make
room for hateful posturing, nor to tolerate hateful actions. Hate must always be stopped dead in its
tracks. Hate has no rights. Hate deserves no space.
Gracefully neither fear nor
pious platitudes about prayer are our only options.
I do agree with our bishops that we have an
urgent task as a church to listen, to hear, and to understand the pain of those
who caste their vote because of the perceived and experienced unresponsiveness
of the establishment to their economic
plight, and to seek reconciliation and unity with them. However, I do not believe that this is our
most urgent task in the present moment.
Our most urgent task is to ready our selves for non-violent resistance
to the point of civil disobedience before bad things begin to happen to good
people and victims begin to pile up.
We have in our span of years have
known this witness and seen its effectiveness in the likes of Blessed Martin
Luther King and Father Daniel Berrigan and those who walked, marched and bore
stripes with them.
If there were ever a time for
action, now is that time. Do we really
want to wait for the mass arrests and deportations of our Latino sisters and
brothers? Would that be wise or loving
on our part? Do we want to wait for the
introduction of stop and frisk policing on our city streets? Would that be wise or loving on our
part? Do we want to wait for an
escalation of sexual violence against women on our campuses nurtured by the
locker room banter and the example of predatory sexual behavior set by the next
commander and chief of date rape? Would
that be wise or loving on our part? Do
we want to wait for the start of the third world war and the bodies of our
grandchildren becoming carnage or do we put our own bodies on the line now for
disarmament on our streets, in our schools and in our world?
This is not a normal
transition in government and we must refrain from the inclination to treat it
as such. We cannot consign those who
have been clearly targeted for bad treatment: Latinos, Blacks, gay people,
Muslims and young women to the shadows.
We have precious little time to seriously attend to their legitimate
fears. And we cannot normalize a man who has threatened to
tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who
has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African
Americans.
And if you think you are too
old to engage in active, non-violent protest and civil disobedience - Think
again. Can you think of a better way to
spend whatever is left of our fading breath and failing bodies than as a living
sacrifice for the Kingdom of God? Jesus
said, “Blessed are those who suffer for justice, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.”
Rev. Frank J. Alagna
Holy Cross/Santa Cruz
Episcopal Church
November 13, 2016
