Spirituality as Resistance: Proclamation

Epiphany Sunday

January 7, 2018

Proclamation as Resistance

Preaching is effective as long as the preacher expects something to happen-

not because of the sermon, not even because of the preacher,

but because of God.

— John Hines

I come to the end of this Advent to Epiphany series of Spirituality as Resistance. There were the four weeks of Advent:

• Hope
• Love
• Joy
• Peace

Then the Christmas season:

• Humility
• Light in the darkness
• Sacrifice
• Sacrament

Yesterday, Epiphany was

• Revelation

As a result of all of that, these nine themes have been building on each other. They interweave

• who we are with
• who God is and then on to
• who God wants us to be.

We ask the final question of this series:

What good is all that hope and love, light and revelation if we don’t with humility and peace take the sacrifice and joy and

• Proclaim

It?

Easy for me to say. I am an independent, retired preacher who proclaims here, on a lonely blog that most days probably gets fewer readers than I ever had sitting in the pews when I was preaching. I am not dependent on you or any of my readers for my salary. I can say pretty much what I want, filtered through my own bias and spirituality. If you don’t agree with me you can leave a comment, or just not come back to see what else I have to say.

So I go ahead and proclaim my resistance. When I was still in the pulpit I would often temper what I was going to say so as not to offend those of different opinion. I might not speak out against the oppression or non-Christian stands of people in power or government. Not only did they pay my salary, they were also my friends. Therefore I had to find ways to say what I wanted to say that would not push friends away or even turn them into adversaries. What good would that do? It was a fine line and a tightrope down the center of a busy thoroughfare, to mix all kinds of metaphors.

Perhaps I didn’t always trust that God would work as fully as I wanted things to happen. Perhaps I wanted to make sure that I would be around to preach for longer than just that one sermon. But when not in the pulpit- hence when it could be a conversation and not just me speaking- we could have discussions on disagreements. I could find ways to proclaim what I felt- and feel- was and is the Good News when sitting face to face with these friends and agree to disagree while still respecting each other. Brene Brown in her latest book, Braving the Wilderness, talks about getting close to people as a way of overcoming division. She points out that most of us can name people who have very different opinions from ours with whom we can maintain friendships. Many of us know that all __________ are wrong, can’t be trusted and are not worth my time, except for _____________ who is my friend. (Fill in the blanks. It goes in all directions.)

The past year has severely tested those opportunities for many of us. Polarized opinions shut off debate as well as discussion. Proclamation becomes “my way or the highway.” I did some of the dialogue at times with mixed results. It was tiring, even spiritually draining. Even moderate statements could raise tensions on both sides. But it is in maintaining the possibility of discussion and dialogue that we may be proclaiming our views in the clearest way possible. When we say that we need to have a discussion and not a diatribe, we proclaim our personal values of acceptance of the others. We make a clear statement of who we are when we can embrace our friends with differing ideas even when they may be proclaiming something entirely difficult to hear.

There is always something about proclaiming love in what we do and who we are.

That, after all, IS what we say God did in Jesus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What next? I am regrouping for Lent at this point. It’s not that far away- just 38 days. Ash Wednesday is on Valentine’s Day this year. (What a great metaphor to begin the season of reflection!) Over the past six weeks I have been working through a couple of spiritual readings, Falling Upward by Richard Rohr and some of the writings of Thomas Merton. They highlight the inward journey I have found myself traveling in the past year or so. I may take Rohr’s book and do some riffing in good jazz style on what that means in this day and age, building on what I have been writing about since the Dark Night of the Soul posts last year. In any case, keep watch for what’s next. Let me know what you think. Have a wonderful month until Lent.

Spirituality as Resistance: Revelation

Epiphany

January 6, 2018

Revelation as Resistance

Unclench your fists

Hold out your hands.

Take mine.

Let us hold each other.

Thus is his Glory Manifest.

-Epiphany, Madeleine L’Engle

An epiphany is

• a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something.
• an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking.
• an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.
  
  (Merriam-Webster)

• For the essential nature or meaning of something to be revealed is revolutionary and changes everything.
• To get an intuitive grasp of reality through some simple, yet striking event, pushes back against the status quo.
• To experience a truth that lights up our lives and the world empowers us to stand up and resist what needs to be challenged.

But what is it that is revealed on this day? What is so striking about today that it should make the state quo defenders tremble? What is the truth that empowers us to resist?

We answer this in the Christian year as the story of the day the Wise Men arrive. While popular culture has combined that with the Christmas Eve narrative, they stand far apart. Mary and Joseph have Jesus in a house now. The angels now bring warning to the travelers instead of tidings of joy. They participate in God’s conspiracy against the government of Herod- they sneak away by another route. That story is a clear instance of resistance and rebellion. It is not to turn Herod into a “believer” or make Judea or Rome a “Christian” place.

The days of Christmas have come to an end. It is Epiphany. All has been revealed, at least for now. Suddenly it is all clear- kind of.

And what is that we now know either more deeply or for a first time or in an entirely new way?

• The essential nature is not power, but humility and poverty and love.
• Reality is the birth of a baby being worshipped by the rich and powerful foreigners under the very nose of the King.
• The truth is that God’s ways are not our ways since none of this makes any sense in the work and ways of this world’s powers.

In such times and with such knowledge Madeleine L’Engel’s words prod and push us into a different understanding.

• The clenched fist of hatred and discrimination is not what God wants, unless it is seen in the helplessness of an infant reaching for love.
• The ways of God are not the actions of racism or greed but rather the open hand reaching to grab the fist of the powerless and downtrodden.
• The light of God illuminating us is knowing that none of us is a stranger to God who knows us more fully than we can ever begin to describe.
• The empowerment found in the revealing of God among us allows us to stand together, holding each other tight with hope.

In that is the glory of God made visible.

Starting This Sunday: A Series for Advent

This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. As I have often done in the past, I will be doing a seasonal series. This one will be on the themes of Advent through Epiphany. In light of what many of us have experienced and felt over the past year I am going to explore the meaning of spirituality as "resistance" to the ways of the world. I don't believe we are to withdraw from the world, but rather engage with the world (in, not of the world) with the Word in mind. The ten-part series will be:

1st Sunday, Dec. 3: Hope as Resistance

2nd Sunday, Dec. 10: Love as Resistance

3rd Sunday, Dec. 17: Joy as Resistance

4th Sunday, Dec. 24: Peace as Resistance

Christmas Eve, Dec. 24: Humility as Resistance

Christmas Day, Dec. 25: Light as Resistance

Sunday after Christmas, Dec. 31: Sacrifice as Resistance

New Year’s Day, Jan 1: Sacrament as Resistance

Epiphany, Jan 6: Revelation as Resistance

Epiphany Sunday, Jan 7: Proclamation as Resistance

There will be more of an introduction on Sunday. Join me in preparing for the season as a sign of Good News for all.

Epiphany

1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day.

2. an appearance or manifestation, especially of a deity.

3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
-Link

Never said any better than this:

Epiphany

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night is a festival, in some branches of Christianity marking the end of the Christmas season and the coming of the Epiphany. It is the traditional day of the coming of the Wise Men to Jesus. As such it is a time of light to the nations who once lived in darkness.

Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion.

Mardi Gras Mood

As they say in New Orleans (and southern Alabama)- Laissez les bons temps rouler. (Let the good times roll.) Here we are on the last Sunday of Epiphany (The Transfiguration.) What does that have to do with Mardi Gras? Well, I'm a preacher and I have learned over the years the fine art of the shoe horn. That means I can find a way to make most things fit into what I want to say. So here goes.

• Seven weeks from today is Easter- the Day of Resurrection.
• That is the ultimate in transfiguration- or change.
• It is transformation.
• It is about Jesus.
• But it is also about us.
• Just as Jesus is transformed, so are we.
• We have these next seven weeks to get ready.
• We stand on the mountain with Jesus today.
• We are assured that we will be transformed as well.
• Before we head into the soulful days of Lent, we party.
• We party because we know the end of the story.
• We party to feed the body before we feed the soul.
• Call it Fastnacht.
• Call it Mardi Gras.
• Let the good times roll, they will not be forgotten.

So here's the video I put together last year for Mardi Gras after our visit to New Orleans.

Let the good times roll.

The Mystery Continues

Dan Clendenin, from the web site, Journey With Jesus, selected a number of poems with spiritual themes and challenges. I came across this one the other day when thinking about Epiphany as the conclusion of the Christmas season and the beginning of taking the Word to the world. It is by Denise Levertov (1923–1997) and lays bear for us the miracle that Epiphany brought to the world.

On the Mystery of the Incarnation

It's when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.

Epiphany: January 6, 2014

“It is not objective proof of God's existence that we want but,

whether we use religious language for it or not,

the experience of God's presence.”

― Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

Epiphany 2013

Section of Windows

St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Rochester, MN

Epiphany 2012

And the light shines into the darkness and the darkness cannot overpower it.

Adoration of the Magi

(Albrecht Durer, 1504)

Epiphany, when the Magi arrived to give gifts to the Christ Child.