January 20, 10:30am (Kevin Westling)
In the presence of gratitude and grateful people, we need not fear blame or shame or anger or resentment. And when that happens, it is a new day.
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Preached@Trinity Buffalo
10:30 AM January 15, 2012
Texts: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 & John 1:43-51
Please keep an open mind,
and listen against the tension
arising from your feelings,
and know
there is a word
here for you,
for each one of us.
I don’t pretend to know
which word is yours,
or even mine,
but I do know
the whisper is in the wind
and it is ours to hear.
You may have that word already
but there may also be another one
laying in wait,
hidden in this sermon
or the thoughts it may agitate;
or in the music;
or in prayers;
or in communion…
somewhere here,
in this moment,
in this place.
Listen against the tension,
and listen within the tension,
and if you do not feel any tension,
if everything is copasetic,
you may need a hearing aid.
Just saying…
Four blocks from here
in a dark, wet corner of an abandoned house
a child shivers even
more from fear
than from cold…
and the word of the Lord is rare these days.
Three blocks from here
in a light, elegantly appointed office
four men in a room grin even
more from satiation
than from splendor…
and the word of the Lord is rare these days.
Two blocks from here
in shadows that hide greasy carpets and stained tables
someone has been drinking for hours already, and even
more than usual…
and the word of the Lord is rare these days.
In a nation that you and I helped create,
one that never complained when we were the 1%
consuming the world’s resources
like Jabba the Hut slurping up the treasures
of penniless populations…
the word of the Lord is rare these days.
In our homes
and in our vehicles
in our offices
and in our schools
where energy is sucked from fat straws
and belched out in the flatulence of greenhouse gases,
and we ring our hands about boosting Consumer Confidence
so we can all go back out
and slam down some more…
the word of the Lord is rare these days.
In our churches
where we lust for the beauty of worship
and fret about numbers of members
while many a church could disappear tomorrow
without so much as a ripple…
the word of the Lord is rare these days.
In our government
that really did invade another country
for no known reason,
that executed a war killing
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis,
and which reckons women and children
as collateral damage…
the word of the Lord is rare these days.
In our culture
personified by the most decadent actors and musicians,
in which hits on pornographic websites
out number all other hits,
and in which celebrity is valued more highly
than service or authenticity…
the word of the Lord is rare these days.
Okay, take a deep breath.
Sometimes
sometimes,
we need to step back and acknowledge,
yeah, it really is as bad as we think.
“Yes, we really have adjusted;
yes, we really have accommodated
until we have
accepted the grime
and hosted the deceit
and tolerated the inequity and corruption.”
Sometimes
we have to step back
and refuse to play the blame game,
and acknowledge
that there is no 1% or 99%
only the 100% of us
who engage in
and participate with
and foster
what we have today…
in which the word of the Lord is rare.
Now I am not trying to bum us out
or inflict guilty feelings
or evoke shame –
none of that benefits anyone.
But sometimes,
sometimes
we need to step back
and get clean.
Sometimes we have to have a place
and a time
and a people
with whom we can breathe cleanly
and that means
truth-telling.
The word of the Lord is rare these days
precisely because truth-telling
is exceptional,
odd
and impolite.
So taking a step back
to notice what we know…
and to say out loud
what we experience…
is to get clean
and fill the mind
with fresh air.
Truth be told,
there is no one in this sanctuary
that has their ‘stuff’ together --
I wish I could use the other word.
There is no one here
who is a model for the rest of us;
no one here
who is not broken,
busted,
limping
or bewildered.
There is no one here
who knows the way out
or even
how we actually
got here in the first place.
There is no one here
who has made it,
as Buechner says,
more than a few steps along the way.
There is no one here
who has more
than a few half-baked and dim ideas
about who to thank.
But that is enough.
Truth be told,
truth happens
when we have even a dim idea
about who to thank…
Gratitude is miraculous, really it is.
Authentic gratitude is like a
borehole
up from the heart,
that releases unspoken anxiety
and the silence of lies and secrets,
and releases clear vision.
Gratitude
dissipates the ego.
The ego
is that part of us that fears to
acknowledge truth
and our part in any given situation
we prefer to deny.
The ego is a fragile child,
a real pout-er
when it comes to public discussion
of personal and corporate
brokenness.
But gratitude
holds the ego in warm arms
and takes us down
below the surface of the mind
and into regions
where truth-telling is possible.
Gratitude
may be the most powerful
antidote we have
in our arsenal,
because it always allows
and encourages
truth-telling –
and in the process,
it also helps to heal
that which hurts us
when we
acknowledge
and talk truth.
The truth is
the word of the Lord is rare these days
because we have spawned
such a horrifically decadent culture,
and every single one of us
is deeply rooted to it
and dependent upon it –
me as much as you
and you as much as me.
I’m not being moralistic here:
I am not ranting against sex, drugs and rock and roll.
I am talking about
the lack of compassion,
the dearth of equal opportunity,
the extreme objectification of anyone and everyone
because they have something we want
or want to be,
or because they are a convenient target
for our blame and resentment.
So sometimes,
sometimes we need to
take a step back…somehow.
I realize not everyone likes camping;
heck, probably most people hate it.
But the thing about camping is,
if you’re not using a fancy RV,
is that you suddenly remember
how basic life is
and how much we take for granted.
A silent retreat
will do the same thing.
If you go someplace,
even for just 24 hours,
where you can’t talk,
use a phone or computer,
and you don’t know anyone,
I guarantee you,
you will begin to catch up with yourself.
You may not like
who or what you meet
when you do catch up,
but that is the point –
in the tension is where
we need to live now and again.
It’s simple and necessary,
like moving the furniture in the living room.
If you move the furniture around
in a room that has been the same way
for a long time,
you will suddenly see the room differently.
You will suddenly see things
you had not noticed
for a very long time.
That’s why Wegman’s keeps moving
the food around in the aisles:
SO WHEN WE GO LOOKING WE SEE OTHER THINGS!
We hate it
but it causes us to see
what our eyes have grown accustomed to
looking past.
That’s what I am talking about:
we grow accustomed
to all kinds of things
inside us
and around us
that we may have felt tension with
when we first encountered them.
In the beginning we may even have balked
at them in some way.
But, over time,
day in and day out,
in our routine,
and accosted by the noise
and chatter of media,
our vision loses acuity
and we grow accustom to some things
we should be vigorously resisting.
You get the point.
That is what the readings are about today:
little encouragements
to move the furniture around
and feel the tensions
that arise when we do,
and so hear the whisper
or receive the word
that is waiting for us like a flower in bloom.
These biblical stories
about the call of a prophet
or the recruitment of disciples and students
should not evoke
images of the miraculous
or supernatural;
they are humble accounts
and reminders
that ‘the voice’
whispers to us in the ordinary –
in the night
in our dreams;
in the day
in our work;
in random encounters
with friends, co-workers and strangers.
Such stories
are cautionary and
remind us that the whispers
and the words
and the biddings
are heard more often than not
in the tension
between what we want to hear
and the truth as
we know it in our bones.
But we have to be willing
to engage in truth-telling
or at least
in listening to some truth-telling,
if we want to receive the word
and hear the voice.
For some reason, one
that God has not made me privy to,
that is the ornery way of things:
we allow ourselves to feel the tensions,
even dig into them now and again,
and we get rewarded
with wisdom,
and insight,
and sometimes, even
affirmation.
So gratitude is the key: knowing whom to thank.
When we tap into that deep reservoir of gratitude
that pads our heart like
embryonic fluid,
the frets and fears
flying like bats around truth
begin to dissipate.
Soon it is not so scary to talk about.
Soon, armed and wrapped in gratitude,
we begin to see
that it’s not about us!
Be it good or bad,
happy or sad,
kudos or blame,
it really wasn’t all about us in the first place.
When we open our minds
to gratitude
and give thanks to God
and whoever else we need to thank,
our fear about the stuff we were afraid to acknowledge
or talk about
begins draining away with a flush.
When we know whom to thank,
and we are surrounded by other people
who know who to thank,
there is a sense of liberation
that finally
we can talk about real stuff
and not be afraid.
In the presence of gratitude
and grateful people,
we need not fear blame
or shame
or anger
or resentment.
And when that happens,
it is a new day.
That is what we need to be spreading around
like peanut butter on a fat slice of bread!
If, as baptized advocates
of an authentic spiritual practice,
we can teach people we know
how to live in the presence of their gratitude,
then we will have made a huge
contribution
to the salvation of our culture,
and our nation,
and our world,
and even ourselves.
You may think that is an outrageous claim,
but that’s our story
and I’m sticking with it.
Amen.
