Too Young

When I say "prophet," what comes to mind? I'll bet that it's an old man with a long beard wearing a robe and leather slippers. That kind of person can certainly be a prophet; but the Bible tells us that God calls young people to be prophets, too! Maybe, says this sermon, we should listen to them.

At the microphone of our society, some people are heard much more clearly than others. We don’t give our attention to everyone equally. The people who are interviewed on the evening news is a great example. My guess is that the vast majority of them are over the age of fifty. The reason for that, of course, is that the evening news wants to interview the movers and shakers of society; and (with the exception of young prodigies like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg) those folks are usually older. The result is that we hear the voices of older folks much more loudly than we hear the voices of those who are younger.

But there is another reason that we listen less to younger people than we do to older ones. Don’t we secretly believe, deep down in our hearts, that younger folks don’t really have anything valuable to say to us? I’m talking to you folks who have been around the block more than once! (I’m one of them myself.) Don’t we believe that our experiences make what we have to say more worthwhile than our younger friends who haven’t been around as long as we have? When I was growing up, I heard all the time that there were things that I simply couldn’t know until I had lived longer. And, for some things, that was absolutely spot on! My experiences have allowed me to understand human nature in a way no psychology textbook ever could. The statement “With age comes wisdom” does contain truth.

But here’s the problem with that statement. Age is often accompanied not by wisdom, but by suspicion, skepticism, and doubt. As we get older, it is easy to become jaded by the injustice, prejudice, and downright stupidity that we have encountered during our lives. When that happens, we are tempted to throw up our hands in despair and cry, “Nothing is ever going to change! Why even try? This is just the way the world is!” Despite God’s promise to work with us in our efforts to remake the world into the harmonious place that it could be, many of us don’t try to change things, because we’ve experienced the evil in the world just once too often.

That’s when we need to listen to the voice of youth. Most young people haven’t had the time to become disillusioned and cynical; and so they are more willing to speak out against the injustice and stupidity of the world when they see it. Do you remember the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen? In that tale, an emperor who cares about nothing except looking good hires two weavers who promise him they will make the most beautiful suit of clothes ever made. They convince the emperor that they are using a fine fabric invisible to anyone who is either unfit for his position or hopelessly stupid. The weavers are actually con men, and only pretend to manufacture the clothes, so no one, neither the emperor nor any of his advisors, can see anything; but they all pretend that they can for fear of being judged unfit or stupid. Finally, the weavers pretend to dress the emperor in the completed clothing, and he marches in a parade before all the people. Not wanting to appear stupid, the people say nothing. It is a child who finally blurts out, “But the emperor has no clothes on!” Of course he didn’t. And it took a child to point it out.

Maybe that’s why God called Jeremiah to be a prophet when he was “only a boy.” Tradition says that Jeremiah was only 17 years old at the time when he heard God’s call. And what was Jeremiah’s response? “I’m too young!” Well, God was having none of that! “I will put my words into your mouth,” God responded. “Go where I send you and speak what I tell you!” God might have added, “because all the older people that I might call aren’t willing to rock the boat, and I need someone who will rock it in all kinds of ways!” When God needed someone to speak out honestly, God asked a young person.

Sometimes, those young people do much more than just speak out. I’ll bet that you’ve heard the story of Trevor Farrell, although you may not recognize his name. When Trevor was just 11 years old, he saw a story on TV about homeless people in Philadelphia. He lived in an affluent suburb himself; and he had no idea that such misery existed. “Somebody should do something about this!” he said. So he persuaded his parents to drive him downtown that very night, taking an old pillow and an extra blanket. When he gave it to a man who was sleeping on a grate and experienced his gratitude, it was the beginning of a 7-year ministry of distributing food and blankets to some of the neediest people in the city.

Of course, not every problem can be solved by handing out food and blankets; but that doesn’t stop the commitment of young people to protest problems to which many of us are resigned. Just one year ago last Thursday, 17 people were killed by a shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. We adults were horrified, but – let’s be honest – we didn’t do anything about it. Oh, some of our legislators sent “thoughts and prayers,” but that’s about all; because – well, “that’s just the way the world is.” The young people were having none of it. One month after the shooting, young people around the country walked out of their classrooms in the middle of the day to protest our failure to take action against school shootings. One of the young people who protested in Florida carried a sign that said, “When leaders act like kids and kids act like leaders, we need change.” How can we argue with that?

Gun violence isn’t the only issue over which our youth are raising their voices. Even as we sit in church this morning, 21 children and youth aged between 11 and 21 years old are suing the federal government over the issue of climate change. They claim that the government's actions have actively contributed to climate change, violating the next generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property; and, further, that the government has failed to protect essential public trust resources. Despite the legal actions of the current administration that is trying to derail the case, it is slowly but surely proceeding through the courts.

Retired UCC pastor Dr. Jim Antal of Massachusetts recently reminded us, “The future is not yet written. God is calling us to change.” He was talking specifically about climate change; but he could have been referring to gun violence, or homelessness, or political oppression, or the refugee crisis. “The future is not yet written. God is calling us to change.” How frequently do we hear the voices of our young people saying just that? Maybe it’s time that we listened to them; because it just might be God who is speaking.

Jubilee people

This year marks the 400th year since a Dutch ship first brought Africans to be enslaved to our shores. It should not pass unnoticed. On the day that is Racial Justice Sunday in the United Church of Christ, in the midst of Black History Month, I preached this sermon.

We love to remember dates, don’t we? We love to say, “Just so many years ago today, such and such happened!” Our British friends are currently remembering that 67 years ago last Wednesday the daughter of King George VI became Queen Elizabeth II upon his death. And next July Fourth, it will be 243 years since our own Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress; and you know that we’ll remember that date! Sometimes we remember entire years because of their significance. 1492, for example, is one of those years. In that year, Christopher Columbus first set foot on the shores of a Caribbean island and opened our continent to European expansion. 1938 is another example. In that year, Hitler began to systematic eliminate the Jewish population of Nazi-occupied territory. Exact days aren’t as important as the effects that the events of these years have had on history. In both 1492 and 1938, the world changed forever.

1619 was a year like that. Exactly 400 years ago, an event took place that has affected our country ever since. In that year, the first Africans were brought to our shores and sold into slavery. In 1619, John Rolfe of the Jamestown colony wrote that a Dutch ship had “brought not anything but 20 and odd Negroes,” who were traded for food and supplies and then enslaved. Before the political entity that we now call “the United States of America” was even imagined, it was permanently shaped by this event that took place 400 years ago.

Slavery as a legal institution lasted nearly 250 years after this event of 1619. Before it was abolished, half of our country took up arms against the other half; and all because of slavery. The Southern economy was built on cotton, and the backbreaking work of picking that cotton was done by slaves; so the South had an economic interest in perpetuating the institution of slavery. Men, women, and even children were kidnapped in Africa and sold on our shores to put money in the pockets of their owners. I am ashamed to admit that many preachers taught that slavery was both begun and blessed by the Bible! On the basis of ancient stories in Genesis that are ambiguous at best, those preachers taught that Africans were the sons and daughters of men who had been cursed by God, and so those Africans were fair game to be enslaved. They pointed to New Testament letters that advised slaves to be obedient to their masters.

They should have known better. The Bible is nothing if not a story of liberation from slavery! Why, the foundational story in the Bible is one about freedom! When Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews and made their life a living hell, God took the part of those slaves. When Pharaoh forced the Hebrews to make bricks to build his cities, God said, “No more!” and he sent Moses to free this ragged bunch of illiterate slaves that God had chosen as his own people. Moses faced the most powerful man in the world; and because he had God on his side, Pharaoh went down to defeat. And Luke tells us that when Jesus gave his very first sermon back in his hometown of Nazareth, he chose this text from Isaiah to read: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2)

God wants us to have nothing to do with enslaving other people, especially not for our own benefit! And to make doubly sure that we don’t miss the point, right in the middle of the law that God gave to Moses at Sinai – right there in the book of Leviticus – is the law of Jubilee. That law says that every fifty-years in the Jubilee year, you have to free your slaves and give them their land back. Did you have to sell your family’s land to pay a debt? Don’t worry – you’ll get it back in the year of Jubilee. Maybe you had to sell a family member, or even yourself to pay off that debt. It’s OK – the year of Jubilee is coming, and everyone will be liberated. Slavery isn’t God’s will. Freedom is God’s will, the freedom that breaks chains and opens locks and throws doors wide open! “Proclaim liberty throughout the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” That’s Leviticus 25:10; and it is inscribed on no less than our own Liberty Bell.

Writer Dawson Taylor remembers sitting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa when Taylor was a college student. (This appeared in the UCC Still Speaking Daily Devotional of February 9, 2019.) He confesses that he doesn’t remember much of what Tutu said. But he remembers this as vividly as if it were yesterday. “Never give the Bible to oppressed people,” said Tutu, “and expect them to remain oppressed.” The slaves on southern plantations knew the Bible because their owners had forced them to convert to Christianity from their own native religions. Those owners believed that Christian slaves would be more submissive and easier to control. Well, the joke was on them; because those slaves learned about the God of liberation who sent Moses, Joshua, and Jesus to his people. After those slaves were forced to pick cotton boll by boll in the blistering heat of the American South, they went back to their cabins and sang, “Go down, Moses! Let my people go!” They sang about crossing the Riven Jordan while dreaming about crossing the Ohio River to freedom. They didn’t sing about a God who told them to listen to their masters; they sang about a God who led them out of slavery to freedom! When, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, they proclaimed it the Year of Jubilee come at last!

With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, we know that 1863 wasn’t really the end of slavery in the United States. It may have been the end of legalized slavery; but to this day, too many people still live in virtual slavery. They may not be picking cotton in the fields of the American South; but they are still being exploited to fatten the wallets of others. Some of them are migrant workers, toiling seasonally in our country’s fields to help with the harvest. Others work long hours in illegal sweatshops – yes, even here in our own country. And we have heard a lot recently about the victims of sex trafficking – women and children who are abducted and made to serve the desires of others. They may not be legally owned by other people; but they are slaves in every other sense of the word.

Do we have a word of grace to say to them? Indeed, we do. We know that God’s deepest desire is that all people might be free from whatever holds them captive. We are Jubilee people; and we are ready to help in whatever way we can to liberate people from the chains that hold them. We may not always know how to do that. But I’m pretty sure that Moses didn’t know exactly how God was going to use him to lead the Hebrews out of Pharaoh’s grip, either! So, this morning, I invite you to be true Jubilee people, ready to speak a word of freedom wherever it is needed. In Christ, God has freed our souls from fear and death. Let’s be ready to free those whose bodies are still in bondage, too. Thanks be to our liberating God!

Worthy of Honor

Who is worthy of honor? Some of us? None of us? All of us? Paul has an answer for that in his first letter to the Corinthians; and it may surprise you.

“Well, ya’ got trouble my friends;

I say trouble right here, trouble right here in River City:

trouble with a capital T, and that rhymes with P, and that stands for Pool!”

You might recognize that song from the Broadway musical The Music Man. The character who sings it is trying to pin all the city’s troubles on a pool hall that has just opened in the center of town. St. Paul could have sung that song himself, although it might have gone something like this:

“Well, ya’ got trouble my friends,

I say trouble right here, trouble right here in Corinth:

Trouble with a capital T, and that rhymes with P, 

And that stands for People who can’t get along with one another!”

Paul had started the church in Corinth; and when he left it to continue his ministry to the Gentiles, he assumed that the members of its congregation knew how to behave themselves. But it didn’t work out quite that way; and so Paul wrote the letter that we now call First Corinthians to remind them how to behave!

This was problem. Some members had the ability to speak in tongues – to speak in the language of the angels themselves – and to deliver messages to the congregation that were straight from God! That was a very glamorous ability; and all those people started believing that they were better than the other church members who only hosted worship in their homes, or handed out food to the hungry, or took care of the sick. When Paul heard that some people were saying “I’m better than you are” instead of saying “Let’s work together”, he wasted no time in setting them straight. He told them, in effect, “If you think that you’re all that and a bag of chips just because you can speak in tongues, you’re mistaken! God gives all kinds of spiritual gifts; and speaking in tongues is just one of them. Some people are wise; some people are healers; other people can discern the signs of the times. One gift is no better than any other! If you start thinking that some gifts are better, you’re going to start believing that one person is better; and that will drive people out of your congregation quicker than ice melts in the summertime! Don’t go there! Just… don’t go there!”

And then, he compares the body of Christ – the church congregation – to a human body whose parts all have to work together if that body is going to be healthy. That’s the part of I Corinthians that I read this morning (12:12-27). We might care more about our eyes than about our elbows; but if we suddenly lost our elbows, we’d be in a heap of hurt! Just as all the parts of our bodies need to work together, every person should be working with every other person for the good of all. Paul even says with a wink, “Why, we care a lot about the parts of our bodies that we don’t show to anyone else!” No part of our physical body is more worthy of honor than any other; and no person in the body of Christ is more worthy of honor, either. It was a hard sell, though, those folks in Corinth had grown up in a culture that insisted that some folks were more worthy of honor than others. Men were more worthy than women; women were more worthy than children; and everybody was more worthy than slaves.

Aren’t you glad that we don’t live in a culture like that? Except that we do. We live in a culture just like that. We hear all the time that some people are more worthy than others. We judge worthiness by skin color, intelligence, gender, educational level, and occupation. Think for a moment about who our society judges as worthy of honor. Pro athletes are worthy. So are stars of movies and television; and folks who are highly successful financially: the leaders of businesses, and super-models. But there are lots of worthy folks who are never honored: hard-working people who care about the common good and do their best day after day. We all know who they are. They’re teachers, cooks, restaurant servers, and plumbers. Now, if all those folks suddenly disappeared, we would be in a world of hurt! But we usually ignore all of them; because… well… we judge that they aren’t quite as worthy as other people are.

I have a dear friend whose father owned a plumbing business in my home town for many years. His father was as honest as the day is long; and he knew his business! Everybody knew that if you called him, he would fix whatever was wrong; and he would make sure that the job was done right. His son took over the business when his father was no longer able to do the work; and he continued the reputation that his father had worked so hard to earn. One day, I ran into him and remarked that he had done all right for himself. Everybody in town knew him; and everybody in town trusted him. But he just said sadly, “Oh, I didn’t do so well. I’m just a plumber.” I answered in a heartbeat, “And when my sink is stopped up, I’m mighty glad that you are!” The truth is that everyone who does his or her job well is worthy of honor; but we insist that some people are better than others simply because of their occupation.

Sadly, this kind of status-seeking infects even the church. Ask any church-goer who is most worthy of honor. My guess is that they’ll name the pastor, the youth worker, the church treasurer, and maybe a Sunday school teacher. But the ushers, the custodians, the members of the women’s circle, and the members of ministry teams? “Oh, yeah,” they’ll say, “they do things too, but they’re not really important.” But that’s not what Paul says! Paul says that ALL members of the body of Christ are worthy of honor, because ALL have an important service to do on behalf of all the others!

Let me tell you about Bob. Bob was a small, soft spoken man, someone who was easy to overlook. No one would ever choose Bob as being someone worthy of honor. But Bob performed a service to the church faithfully for many years: he ran the dishwasher following church dinners. The cooks and servers never needed to stay and clean up, because Bob took care of all that. Month after month, dinner after dinner, Bob ran the dishwasher. He claimed that job as his ministry in the church; and he was proud to do it. Was he worthy of honor? You bet he was! If heaven has a dishwasher, I’m quite sure that Bob is up there running it right now so that the angels who worked so hard on cooking and serving the dinners can go home and put their feet up afterwards.

Are you worthy of honor? Do you tidy the sanctuary, or send cards to home-bound parishioners? Maybe you visit members in assisted living homes, or serve on a ministry team. Maybe you help to make peanut brittle, or help to clean up the recreation park in the spring. My friends, if you do anything for the good of others, you are worthy of honor! God appreciates everything that you do – and this morning, I want to make sure that you know that we do, too!