Song: Baraye from Iran | Article: An octopus and a piano |
This is part of a sermon I preached in Seminary. I graduated in 2002, so it's kind of old! And yet our fear continues.
I'm working on my nephew's wedding quilt--he gets married to Lia in Dublin in July. Not clear if I can finish on time.
-Liz
Be Not Afraid
Sometime perhaps near 1350 BCE Shiphrah, Pua, midwives of the Hebrews, were ordered by the Pharaoh to kill all the Hebrew male children. They refused. I imagine their mothers-in-law were horrified. Don’t do it they argued, you’ll get yourself killed
Around 260 BCE Ashoka, an Indian emperor, renounced war and became a Buddhist. I imagine his children were angry—the nation needs you to lead! We like life as children of the emperor.
In 26 CE Jews by the thousands surround Pilate’s house protesting his idolatry. When he threatens to kill them they offer their necks—and he backs down. I imagine their husbands and wives pleaded with them not to go. Pilate was notoriously violent.
Jesus came and told us: according to Luke: 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! Your households will be divided, one member against another. Matthew tells it like this: 34“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
In 1849 Harriet Tubman left her home in slavery and moved to Pennsylvania. Over a period of ten years Tubman made an estimated 19 expeditions into the South and personally escorted about 300 slaves to Freedom in the North. I imagine her children became more persistent as Harriet continued these trips. Really mom, you’ve done your share of this work, please take care of yourself. Stay home.
In 1943 Knud Dyby, a 20-year-old officer in the Danish Royal Guard, began plans to rescue his Jewish neighbors from deportation. Over the next three months he helped 1,888 people leave Denmark for Sweden and safety, and looked after their houses for their later return. Denmark saved almost all of the 8000 resident Jews, as well as Estonians, gypsies and others. I imagine his father told him to keep his head low. As an officer he was especially vulnerable to Nazi command—really son, someone else can help these people.
In 1983 Corizon Aquino’s husband was killed for opposing the Marcos government. She agreed to head the opposition for the next election and, after the people of the Philippines went into the streets in her support, was declared the winner. I imagine her father-in-law begged her to get out of the Philippines. Think of your children, think of your grand children. Marcos is too powerful to defeat.
In 1990, disabled demonstrators demanding passage of a civil rights bill protested at the Capitol. Sixty people who use wheelchairs crawled up the steps of the Capitol to win passage of the Disabilities rights Act. I imagine some of their mothers pleaded with them not to go. You’ll be humiliated, you’ll be hurt. Isn’t there some way do this by visiting your Congressional Representative?
In 1993 Samdech Maha Gho-san-anda, a sixty-eight year old Buddhist primate of Cambodia, led hundreds of Buddhist monks, nuns, and laity on a month long march throughout Cambodia to the capital hoping to build confidence in the first free elections since the Khmer Rouge rule. During the third march a monk and a nun were killed, others were injured, when the marchers were caught in the crossfire of Khmer Rouge and government troops. I imagine their parents, spouses and children begged them not to march. It’s a month, who will keep up the farm? If you die we will have nothing. Someone else will do it, please don’t go.
One way to understand today’s Gospel is to understand it as a personal story of our lives in faith. Sometimes you will need to divide yourself from your family to live a life of faith. Sometimes you will need to use a metaphorical sword to separate yourself from those who lead you astray. I believe this interpretation is valid.
I would like to argue, however, that sometimes a personal reading is too small to be Good News. The people of Bosnia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Northern Ireland, everywhere are crying out: How long, O God, How long? People who are black, or poor, or queer, or disabled, old, lonely, dying, and addicted throughout the world are crying out: How long, O God, How long?
Can we can re-imagine this text as a call to action? Can re-imagine that Shiphrah, Pua, Ashoka, Harriet, Dyby and Aquino, lived out the division described in this text. Can we re-imagine that every person who faces the violence of the world head-on, aggressively, divisively, yes, especially those who create division to demand justice and peace—that they are living out the Good News of this passage.
For years the world has waited for the anointed one to come and free us from the oppression and violence that we have created. For Christians, that Messiah has heard our cries and come. And he said to us: Do you think I bring peace? No, I tell you, it is division that brings peace! Peace comes about when you are willing to work for justice, against the better advice of your parents, against the wishes of your in-laws, against the pleas of your children.
As westerners, we naturally see dualism without even noticing it. In this verse we hear peace as the opposite of division, in the same way that we understand peace as the opposite of war.
But peace is not the opposite of division. The opposite of peace is when we let the status quo exist without question, when we try to be nice, argue for unity, hide our our differences, when we simply do not act. That is the opposite of peace.
Non-violent division: the willingness to say NO to injustice, to pull down walls, and to name oppression, that is what the world is waiting for.
Feel the fire of the Holy Spirit in your ministry, and face the violence and oppression of this world. Our mothers and fathers, daughters and sons will think we are taking too many risks. And less people will have to cry out: How long, O God, how long. Amen..
What is your church doing that makes your parents worried? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening.
This song, made up of social mediat tweets, one a Grammy in 2022. It's about the "Women, Life, Liberty" uprising in Iran at that time. This version has english subtitles.
Not related to anything, here is an article about teaching an octopus to play a song on a piano.
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