10th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 15C

10th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 15C August 18, 2019 Last week, I spent a week in training in conflict mediation at the Mediation Skills Training Institute at the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center. The diocese encouraged me to go get this training, so I could offer my skills in different ways to the greater diocese, but I also learned a number of things that could be useful tools in parish ministry (although, I’m hoping not to need any of these in the near or distant future!) One of the goals of conflict mediation is for the mediator to help two people, different groups, or even whole systems (like a church) communicate with one another and problem solve together to address the issues and interests involved. The whole point is to try to help people to move beyond a win-lose mentality and help them explore win-win possibilities. Our facilitator told numerous stories and emphasized how God can and does work through this process to bring about healing and reconciliation for those involved. All that is to say that it seems that our readings for this Sunday just might lend themselves toward conflict mediation. First you have God who is bringing a court case against Israel for breach of covenant in the book of Isaiah. God is telling Israel that God does not desire their hollow worship and reminds them of what they are supposed to be doing as a part of being God’s people: that is to “cease to do evil,/ learn to do good;/ seek justice,/ rescue the oppressed,/ defend the orphan,/ plead for the widow.” (This is from last week’s portion of Isaiah chapter 1 verses 10-20.) Then in today’s reading, the narrator says he is going to sing a love song, but this love song consists of the frustrated expectations of God for God’s people presented in a parable about a vineyard owner and an unproductive, uncooperative vineyard. The parable concludes with the utter destruction of the vineyard due to the owner’s frustration, and just in case we missed the comparison, with the words: “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts/ is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah/ are his pleasant planting;/ he expected justice, but saw bloodshed;/ righteousness, but heard a cry!” Then you have Jesus who has set his face toward Jerusalem and is on his way to die saying, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.” (I’m not really sure how to mediate a win-win solution from that scenario!) Here is what strikes me from these two readings. First, God’s love is abundant and freely available to all, but God’s love does not come without expectations of how God’s beloved are supposed to act. Isaiah and Jesus to a somewhat lesser extent are both prophetic voices who are reminding the people that being the chosen people of God is about so much more than how they worship. They are reminding people that God’s love has expectations for them and those expectations are not being met. They are expected to do justice and to love mercy. They are expected to protect the most vulnerable among them—the widow and the orphan. They are supposed to show hospitality to the strangers among them, both those who are not Jewish and those who are from other lands. They are failing in all of this, and God has grown frustrated and disappointed with them. Second, we need to remember the context of Jesus’s words for his 1st century audience. The family unit which he references is the building block of that society. By saying that he is bringing division to that foundational unit, he is saying that his mission is to completely overthrow the status quo. His early followers understood that to follow him meant to question the status quo as it related to absolutely everything: politically, religiously, sociologically, economically, socially… One commentator writes, “…Following Jesus meant not merely adopting new beliefs, but a new way of living. To be a follower of the one who accepted and even honored the disreputable meant that you needed to do the same, rejecting the easy temptation of judging others and instead inviting them into our lives. To be a follower of the one who preached love and forgiveness was to practice the same, particularly when it comes to those who differ from you even, and maybe especially, in terms of what they believe.” It’s getting where I don’t even want to look at the news any more. It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to witness the deep divisions at work in our country over what would seem to be the most basic and fundamental issues. I begin to despair and just want to shut it all out and live my peaceful life. And it all just seems too big for me to figure out, and I know that there is no single political party who has it all figured out. “All of us have fallen short of the glory of God.” Today’s readings are a sharp and painful reminder to me that being God’s beloved comes with expectations and that being a follower of Jesus means questioning all aspects of the status quo. We cannot remain faithful to those callings and bury our heads in the sand and do nothing, hoping that it will all just work itself out. But what on earth are we to do? How are we to even begin to seek a win-win solution in a political system that has become so entrenched in win-lose? This morning, as I was wrestling with all this, I took a break and read the Franciscan priest Richard Rohr’s daily email. In this email, he writes about creating peaceful change; he writes about how any kind of transformation of society begins with people being rooted and grounded in their own identities as beloved of God that is found in prayer and contemplation. He writes about finding communion in our prayer, communion with God and even communion with our enemies. Rohr writes, “When we begin by connecting with our inner experience of communion, our actions can be pure, clear, and firm. This kind of action, rooted in one’s True Self, comes from a deeper knowing of what is real, good, true, and beautiful—beyond labels and dualistic judgments of right or wrong. From this place, our energy is positive and has the most potential to create change for the good. This stance is precisely what we mean by “being in prayer” and why we must pray always to maintain this state of constant prayer.” He continues, “I’m not telling you not to act. The Gospel offers a way to make our action sustainable and lasting over the long haul. People on the Right tend to be perpetually angry, fearful, and overly defensive, and people on the Left tend to be perpetually cynical, morally righteous, and outraged. The Gospel calls forth a refined instrument beyond these two falsehoods that can really make a difference because it is a new level of consciousness altogether. Such activists are themselves “a new creation” (Galatians 6:15) and the lightning rods of God’s transformative energy into the world.”ii A little over two years ago, in my very first sermon here, I talked about 5 practices of discipleship. (Do you remember them? 1. Pray daily. 2. Worship weekly. 3. Learn constantly. 4. Give generously. 5. Serve joyfully.) I have lost the pattern of praying daily, of contemplation, and I feel its absence keenly. So your invitation this week is to join me in trying to establish, reestablish, or strengthen that practice of daily prayer in your own spiritual life. Like Jesus’s original hearers, many of us have lost the ability to interpret the present time; but when we open ourselves to being in the presence of God daily, that alone can and will transform us, and it will help us transform the world. i. http://www.davidlose.net/2016/08/pentecost-13-c-pursuing-a-faith-that-matters/ ii. From Richard Rohr’s daily meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation. August 18, 2019; https://cac.org/creating-peaceful-change-2019-08-18/