Hunting Ridge Presbyterian Church

Micah 6:1-8

We used to play “truth or dare” when I was at slumber parties as a kid.  In case you have never played it… you sit as a group in a circle.  One person is it, and chooses anyone else in the group to question.  The questioner can ask any question, usually the kind of question designed to embarrass, like:  “Do you like Stefan?” or, “Which basketball player on our team is your favorite?”  The person can respond with the truth or she can respond, “I’ll take the dare.”  If she doesn’t want to tell the truth, the questioner makes up a dare that the responder has to do in order to get out of telling the true answer to the question.  In our day, the dares were like:  “I dare you to go outside in your pajamas and shout:  Look at me!”  Now everyone goes outside in their pajamas and no one looks twice.  Or it could have been:  “Call the Pizza Hut, order a pizza, give your name, and hang up.”  Now everyone orders online so that is not such a daring thing to do.  Our dares were usually kind of silly and harmed no one.

This month I have a dare for you!  I dare you to try some different kinds of prayer.  For the month of July, we will be exploring different texts in Scripture which challenge us to follow a variety of prayer examples– maybe praying in a different location, in a different posture, using a different pattern.  Most of us are accustomed to prayer before meals, prayer to begin the day, prayer to end the day.  Most of us are accustomed to prayers of thanks to God, prayers for forgiveness of our sins, and prayers which are pleas to God for help for ourselves or for a loved one.  We use those kinds of prayers regularly in our worship together.  This month, let’s make a commitment to try different ways to pray.  When you agree to take a dare, you agree to try something that is new or difficult, either physically or emotionally.  To take my dare, you will need to sacrifice some of your time.  To take my dare, you will need to step out of your comfort zone.  When you take my dare, you run the risk of drawing closer to God in a way that you have not before.  I challenge you to take my prayer dare!  I am going to take it.  I will put some comments about my reflections on new ways to pray up on Facebook and on our website throughout the month.  Please offer your comments and share your insights.

Today your prayer dare is praying for justice.  The way to pray for justice is simple but difficult.  It requires a certain level of courage.  In the words of our friends at Nike, “just do it.”  The 8th century prophet (that is 8 centuries before Christ was born) Micah nails it when he describes what God is expecting from us.  Not stuff, not money, not being on our knees and talking non-stop.  In Micah’s day, he had to say to his people– God is not waiting for your multitude of animal sacrifices.  God is not waiting for your calves or your oil or even your first born child.  (That is hyperbole at the end of his escalating list of sacrifices, obviously God does not want you to sacrifice your first born!)  God is waiting for you to do justice, which is a way of showing steadfast love, or mercy, and in doing so, you will be walking with God.  It is a moving prayer, not a stationary one.  It is an active prayer, not a passive one.  It is a prayer with your life, not just with your mind or voice or heart.

Praying for justice is living justice.  The Hebrew word for justice is mishpat.  Simply put, living justice is living in such a way that we treat one another by following the ways of God.  It is yielding our lives to God and God’s way.  Doing justice is upholding what is right according to God’s practices, God’s expectations, God’s love.  It is caring for and about the powerless, the inequities in our justice system, the job market for immigrants, the guys who live in the tents at the end of the highway.  And doing justice is not only our one on one relationships with people we meet, but it is also our role in society at large.  One example:  I can’t believe it is God’s way to gun one another down.  Right here in this sanctuary, we are not so far removed from places in our city where gun violence is happening.  What is our role as residents of a city racked by gun violence?  Different people will feel called to take different actions, but I am sure that it is unjust to sit and do nothing.

Earlier in this book of Micah, the prophet condemned the leaders of Israel for their failure to live justice, for ignoring the needs of the people, for hating good and loving evil,  for taking bribes, for causing bloodshed, for failing to listen to God.  To address their injustice, Micah uses the imagery of a court case between God and the people of Israel.  The mountains and the hills will be the jury, listening to God’s complaint against God’s people.  Using rhetorical questions, he points out that it is obvious that God never did anything against them, that God did not weary them.  It is the people of God who are in the wrong.  The people who seemed to have forgotten that God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, providing them with leaders like Moses, Aaron and Miriam.  The people who seemed to have forgotten the blessing they received from the prophet Balaam when King Balak of neighboring Moab tried to buy him off so that he would curse the people of Israel because he was afraid of them.  The people who thought they could buy off God, bailing themselves out with their offerings and sacrifices.  That is not the way to resolve the dispute between God and God’s people.  Micah calls them back to what God expects of them, to what they should have known, to what is good.  To do justice, embrace faithful love, walk humbly with God.

Praying for justice can not be just words.  It can not be just showing up when the news media is around.  We have a pastor in Baltimore who has been outspoken since last year’s riots.  At one point this spring he was asked by the neighbors in Sandtown/Winchester to leave the neighborhood because he only seemed to show up when he could look good and did not seem to be doing anything for the community.  Since that time, they have met and talked things out.  Tomorrow under the JFX they will be working together– Muslims, Christians, gang members and police– to hand out food to anyone who is hungry.  Living justice, not just talking about justice.

As we celebrate the 240th year of our nation’s birth, we can’t forget that we are here because people before us insisted on justice.  I think of the people in Boston who protested the unjust policies Britain had exacted on the colonists in the 1770’s.  They did not just write letters to the king.  They took action and threw the barrels of tea into the harbor, creating a big blow to England’s cash flow.  I think of the young people in Greensboro, NC and other cities who did not just picket outside the whites only lunch counters in the 1960’s.  They went in and sat down and refused to move.  Insisting on justice requires action.  I really appreciate the words of Cornel West, American scholar, social activist, currently a professor of religion at Princeton University:  “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”

This week I dare you to put feet to your prayer.  Find a way you can take some form action to follow God’s commitment to justice for all, not just for some.  Make the time to write or call an elected official.  Let them know your concern  not just for your own neighborhood, but for someone else’s.  Why are the worst roads in the poorest neighborhoods?  What are we really doing about the high number of vacant homes in our city?  Find out where your elected official stands on issues that affect this city as a whole.  You can even compliment where a compliment is due.  We discovered brand new lighting on Edmondson Avenue that helps the entire street to be much better lit for safety.  I am going to contact the city and find out who to thank.  It is a way to encourage our government to keep the needs of the neighborhoods on the front burner.  Instead of always complaining and requesting, how about a “well done” every now and then?   Get involved in your own neighborhood association.  Find out who the president is, when the next meeting is.  Take the president to lunch and find out what he or she is concerned about.  Make time to find out where there is a job training program that you could offer your assistance to.  You have skills and wisdom that could benefit someone else.  I know one called “turn around Tuesdays” which meets on the East Side, but surely there are more.  Resume writing, tax preparation, interview practice, donating clothing to help people in the job search process.  Go down to the JFX tomorrow and bring some 4th of July food to share.  Be a part of an effort to bring Baltimore together.  This prayer dare requires action.  Praying for justice means living it.

Next Sunday I will invite you to share your experiences with my prayer dare by writing them down and offering them up to God via the offering plate.  Dares are not easy.  Dares require you to step out of your comfort zone, to make some sort of sacrifice, to try something new.  I dare you…..  to do justice, show faithful love, and walk humbly with God.  Amen.

2 Cor. 5:11-21

Our next door neighbors have been married twice.  To each other.  I do not know why, but they were divorced many years ago.  After some years apart, they were reconciled to one another and they re-established their marriage.  So, when they go away for an anniversary trip each year, I always ask, “So how many years have you all been married?”  And my neighbor always says, “Well, it depends….”  For a time they went their separate ways.  Then they came back together as one.  Anything they had against each other had to be dropped and a new fresh start undertaken when they got re-married.

Bringing people together is God’s business.  It is reconciliation.  Bringing people together who have been at odds– either for a short time or for generations.  Bringing people back to him who have walked away.  God’s reason for sending his Son, Jesus Christ, was to reconcile us to him, to bring us back, to re-establish our original relationship, to reconnect us with the source of our life, the Creator.  Paul says that this is what God is about:  God reconciling the world to himself, re-establishing the relationship by not counting people’s sins against them.   Sin had been the barrier, the wall, between God and God’s creation.  God reaches out in reconciliation.

Jesus has come and gone.  We are left to carry on.  We have been trusted with this same message of reconciliation– re-connecting people to God and re-connecting people to one another.   We do that by being ambassadors for Christ to others.  We represent Christ to the world.

Reverend Allen Boesak and other leaders of South Africa were clear that human reconciliation can only happen when the two parties stand on equal footing.  The uneven power between blacks and whites in South Africa is well known.  Their attempt to move beyond apartheid has been a long, long struggle, even after the truth and reconciliation commission has done its work.  Our newest statement of belief in our Book of Confessions comes from Belhar, South Africa, a statement which describes our role as agents of reconciliation with God.  Listen:  “We believe … that the church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.”   Ambassadors stand in for someone else.  As ambassadors for Christ, we basically stand in for the Lord as agents of reconciliation, as people who re-establish relationships, as people committed to making the footing more even.

Reconciliation is hard work.  Our footing is so uneven in this country that it is no wonder we are constantly tripping.  Our footing is so uneven in the church of Jesus Christ that it is no wonder that people outside the church can’t figure out what an ambassador for Christ actually does.  It will do us well to reflect a bit on our roles as ambassadors for Christ, as agents of reconciliation in our world.

First, let me share with you a story about a group of American Quakers visiting Ramallah, in the West Bank.  While they were there, a Muslim family was the target of an Israeli military shooting spree, and had to huddle with their children on the floor of their home until the shooting stopped.  When Nadia saw the Americans, she railed at them.  “It was your country who provided the bullets and the guns which almost killed my whole family!”  She was full of blame and anger toward anyone who represented the US in any way.  The group of Quakers chose to represent Christ instead.  They collected funds from each participant to give to the family in order to repair the damage to their home.  They were not sure the gift would be accepted, and were worried that Nadia might be offended, thinking they were trying to buy her forgiveness. Perhaps she wanted nothing to do with Americans or Christians.

Just before the group left Ramallah, Nadia called to ask if she and her family could thank them in person. After sharing a meal and conversation together, Nadia asked, “Are Quakers Christians?” The members of the group answered “Yes, just not always very good ones!” “I thought so,” Nadia responded, “but I didn’t want to offend you.” She then reached into a bag and handed each one in the group a little Christian token: a Crusader’s Cross, a crucifix made of olive wood from Bethlehem.

A Muslim woman, nearly killed by weaponry supplied by the country of a group of visiting Christians, chose to express her gratitude with Christian souvenirs.  A wooden crucifix is not exactly part of the Quaker tradition, but that did not matter.  A gift is a gift.  Being ambassadors for Christ means being ambassadors for peace, and agents of reconciliation.

Now let’s talk about being ambassadors closer to home.  So how are we ambassadors for Christ in the face of the hatred, bigotry, racism and fear that became so terribly visible last weekend in Orlando, Florida?  Were the victims targeted because they were Latino immigrants?  Or because they were part of the LGBT community?  Or because they were happy, simply enjoying life with friends in a safe, comfortable setting?  A twisted, angry mind combined with a weapon designed for war is a recipe for death.  Again.

We have just passed the one year mark after the devastating shooting in a Charleston church.  That rocks us to the core.  Churches are safe places.  But when hatred spews out combined with a weapon, families are in mourning and a community is shaken.  We know they were targeted because they were black.  But also because they were church folk?  Also because of the long held activism for civil rights on the part of that church in the community?

We live in a world that is intent on labeling, dividing into “us” and “them”, building walls and drawing lines.  These divisions are based on sexual identity, race, national origin, religion, or geographical location.  All human-made divisions.  It makes footing very uneven and it makes reconciliation a very big job.  As an ambassador for Christ, what do you say when you are at a family reunion and someone is putting down people who identify as homosexual?  Or the neighbors down the street who adhere to the Muslim faith?  Or the immigrant family running the corner store?  The first step is to speak up.  It may not be comfortable, especially if you are in the minority.  You know your family, you know your group of friends, you know the opinions that might be voiced, especially in this crazy election year.  You can prepare ahead.  Think about how you will be an agent for reconciliation instead of a contributor to further division?

Our denomination is working on reconciliation this week at the General Assembly meeting in Portland, OR.  (Which, by the way, James and Laurice Parks were unfortunately unable to attend due to illness.)  One vote will center around being ambassadors for Christ in relationship with our Native American brothers and sisters.  Maybe you did not know that there are 95 Native American Presbyterian congregations in our denomination.  If the request to the General Assembly coming from Baltimore is approved this week, each of those congregations will get a letter of apology from the Presbyterian Church USA.  That is, an apology for past actions coupled with a desire to be reconciled to one another going forward.

Our denomination was part of great pain and suffering of Native American children and their families through the Indian Boarding School program which began in the late 1800’s.  Quoting from the General Assembly document addressed to the Native American congregations:  “In our zeal to tell you of the good news of Jesus Christ, our hearts and minds were closed to the value of your spirituality. We did not understand the full extent of the Gospel of Christ! We should have affirmed the commonality between your spirituality and our understanding that God’s sovereignty extends with length from East to West, with breadth from North to South, with depth throughout the Earth, and with height throughout the Sky and Heavens.

Even worse, we arrogantly thought that Western European culture and cultural expressions were necessary parts of the Gospel of Christ. We imposed our civilization as a condition for your accepting the Gospel. We tried to make you be like us and, in so doing, we helped to diminish the Sacred Vision that made you who you are. Thus, we demonstrated that we did not fully understand the Gospel we were trying to preach.

We know that apology is only a first step in the larger hope of repentance and reconciliation. We seek the guidance of relationships with your people within and beyond our church as we seek to identify and act on restorative practices and policies at the relational, communal, and national level.”

            We know that arrogance and power and selfishness and greed have repeatedly created uneven footing between people, groups, and communities around the world and right here at home.  Some simple steps toward equal footing are: acknowledging the sin which separates, seeking forgiveness,  listening to the stories of the other, and creating a path forward together.  None of this is easy.

We are dealing with unequal footing in many arenas.  Children in Sandtown and children in Ten Hills have very different starting points, different sets of resources, different kinds of outlook on the world, etc.  Majority black congregations in our Presbytery do not feel treated equally as majority white congregations.  Small rural congregations in our Presbytery do not feel treated equally as congregations located in and around Baltimore.  One step forward for our Presbytery is the calling of an African American woman as the next general presbyter.  Jackie Taylor comes to us from New Castle Presbytery in Delaware.  She will begin her work here in August or September.  Hooray!

One step forward for us all is to have our eyes open to words we can use, actions we can take to be agents of reconciliation on any level, to be ambassadors for Christ in all places.  May it be so.