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Peter JB Carman
March 10, 2019
Luke 4: 1-13
I.
There is a connection we each have, a deep connection with the good earth from which God has shaped us. There is another connection intertwined with the earth-connection. There is a Spirit; a sacred Spirit who dwells in the earth beneath our feet, the sky above our heads, in our very bodies.
We don’t always notice that there is a living God in the land. It’s easy to think that God is far away and not engaged; a watchmaker who wound us up long ago; or a distant ruler, not concerned with the impact of this or that. As we forget the earth, the land, the sky, the dirt beneath our toes, we stop noticing this nearby Spirit, we begin to make questionable decisions.
Let us confess not just for ourselves but for our leaders! We forget the sacredness of the land; we forget to love our neighbors who share our flesh, share our bones, share the same blood. We hurt the land and abandon what is loving and sacred in our relationships with neighbors.
II.
An ancient writer had to remind the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 26:1-11) that they had not always held what they considered their property. Their houses, farms, streets and cities had belonged to others before them. Once they too had been exiles and foreigners, once they had been homeless wanderers, fleeing from captivity, until God found them a home.
The book of Deuteronomy instructed an ancient people to remember their heritage, remember the years they had wandered, the years when a sacred spirit, a powerful wind and a pillar of fire, had led them into a new home place. Remember that in the beginning and in the end, it wasn’t theirs to abuse!
It’s easy to live as though we are entitled to the prosperity, the power, and the glory. But the owners know deep down it isn’t theirs—it can be taken away. So, the longer we have security the more insecure we become. The more power we possess, and the more we rely on it, the more fearful we are in our hearts...and the more power we want. Call it the sin of ownership. But there is an antidote.
III.
Many, many years ago, when the young Jesus of Nazareth was just starting his work, the Spirit let him know what childhood teachers in the synagogue would have drilled into him already: that there was no future to be proclaimed without a memory of the past.
The Spirit let the young Jesus know there was no kingdom to be had, without deep roots in what the ancestors had learned in the wilderness. Obedient to the spirit, and living into the teachings of his ancestors, for forty days Jesus went out to remember whose he was, to fast, to pray. In the wilderness Jesus found the spiritual wherewithal to face temptation: the temptation that filled that land then; that fills this land now. In untamed country, he found the memory of a generous God, able to provide. In wilderness places, he found One who could sustain him. He experienced the power of a divine Spirit who would help him fight the tendency to power, influence, glory and allegiance, and most of all control! He remembered there. He remembered the ancient God whose presence had led his mothers and fathers into the land of promise. He remembered the still young God who sheltered him in the cold desert nights. As he walked through the hardship of this time, it was enough to lean on the arms of that God, walk on the earth of that God--embrace the sky of that God. It was enough to trust an all-pervading Spirit.
This trust that he learned in forty days of wilderness wandering never deserted Jesus. It was the preparation he needed to face into controversy, into powerlessness and betrayal, even into death. It stood him in good stead, alone on mountaintops and surrounded by crowds, alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, and facing the mob and Roman authorities in Jerusalem.
IV.
It is easy today to forget that God is in the land. The actions of powerful people treat God’s good creation at best as “resources” to be “developed” (we aren’t honest enough to say “exploited” any more). Many of us have a certain hardness of heart toward the land. We neither trust nor respect the living Spirit that inhabits this good earth.
It is so easy to stop trusting a sacred Spirit. Our whole world is built on trusting the spirit of domination. Just look at the three temptations Jesus faced—they are all about the twenty-first century.
Forgive me if I talk about the devil a little bit! This devil wears a three-thousand-dollar suit. This devil can fast track power and profits. “Turn these stones to bread: turn these shale rocks into oil! Worship me, I’ll give you the ability to transform natural resources hidden in the wilderness into precious gifts for humanity. And you can have it for a bargain price, take the rivers for receptacles, the sky for the leftovers from your smokestacks. Sign on the dotted line, never mind the people of Flint, the people of the Dakotas, the people of Hoosick Falls, of Albany and Schenectady.”
Or here’s one—“If you just worship me instead of that silly God of love, I’ll give you control over all the nations and empires of the world--- they’ve all been entrusted to me.” Empire building? Salvation by military might? Solutions from the chessmaster at the top? You can have it all if you only….such a deal! But the devil’s in the fine print! And organized evil likes to work from the top down. It is so easy to get sucked in to the politics of power and the power of money, the power of nation, state and empire.
But say Mr. Devil—aren’t you in the details? Whom did you say I have to worship? And whom am I going to pay off? Isn’t that our souls you are after? Or is it our humanity you want? Or just our bodies and the good earth?
Jesus responded by staying true to the Spirit that led him. What will it take for us to remember that there is a Living Spirit is in the land?
V.
Once upon a time I lived in a small city, not THIS city of course, a Connecticut city. But you can make your own connections. In that city, the mayor decided to re-develop the Green downtown, the common ground in the middle of the downtown. He got a federal block grant.
In the early days of that city the green had been a common pasture where the townspeople could bring their cattle to graze. More recently it had been a somewhat seedy park, where old men slept on benches and young children misbehaved. But now it was to become a glorious …well, a glorious… something.
Something with pavement. One of my good friends there, Tom Cornell, was heard to say, “They can stop calling it the Waterbury Green now. They have spent so much money to pave it over that now we can all just call it the Waterbury Concrete.”
The same administration that was so ready to pave over the green in favor of concrete was willing to pave over the plight of the homeless. It was willing to pave over the reality of poverty and violence in that little city. It was ready to pave over the powerless.
VI.
Malvina Reynolds wrote a song Pete Seeger used to sing:
God bless the grass that grows through the crack.
They roll the concrete over it to try and keep it back.
The concrete gets tired of what it has to do,
It breaks and it buckles and the grass grows thru,
And God bless the grass.
God bless the truth that fights toward the sun,
They roll the lies over it and think that it is done
It moves through the ground and reaches for the air,
And after a while it is growing everywhere,
And God bless the grass.
God bless the grass that breaks through cement,
It's green and its tender and it's easily bent,
But after a while it lifts up its head,
For the grass is living and the stone is dead.
And God bless the grass.
God bless the grass that's gentle and low
Its roots they are deep and its will is to grow.
And God bless the truth, the friend of the poor,
And the wild grass growing at the poor man's door,
And God bless the grass
A Living Spirit is in the land. Turn back to the desert and the forest, the rivers and the hills! Remember how close God is, how loving! Remember the times when God has cared for you in the wilderness. Get powerful, like the grass, breaking up that old concrete.
Let us remember the sustaining hand of a living Spirit, upon whom we rely. As we face the chaos that pervades our world right now, we need stories old enough, good enough, true enough to remind us in our bones of the reality of the Spirit...a Spirit capable of taking us through the impossible present. Some old truth breaking through like new blades of grass—like the crocuses that are about to rise up.
When we start to trust this God- Spirit again, a power emerges from within, a power that can help us cut through the hardness of heart, the mistrust and disrespect. In the memory, in the trusting, there is room for God to plant seedlings, new growth that will break through the concrete of consumption, break through arrogance, break through despair.
God is a Living Spirit, present and real…. In the end, it is not enough to rail against power misused! To resist that, spiritually, you and I need to remember, learn, grow, and yes, even be tested, to be made ready for our very own journey into the Promised Land. You and I have a pilgrimage to take, led by the Spirit. Yet if we do risk this radical reliance on God, we will start to see the new creation that is breaking through the old, tender strong shoots breaking up concrete, crumbling ancient walls.
Sense the Spirit, hear the wind, feel the breath of divine love, disrupting all our preconceptions and our plans. Trust the Spirit. Walk with Christ. It is a new day of promise and deliverance.
March 10, 2019
Luke 4: 1-13
I.
There is a connection we each have, a deep connection with the good earth from which God has shaped us. There is another connection intertwined with the earth-connection. There is a Spirit; a sacred Spirit who dwells in the earth beneath our feet, the sky above our heads, in our very bodies.
We don’t always notice that there is a living God in the land. It’s easy to think that God is far away and not engaged; a watchmaker who wound us up long ago; or a distant ruler, not concerned with the impact of this or that. As we forget the earth, the land, the sky, the dirt beneath our toes, we stop noticing this nearby Spirit, we begin to make questionable decisions.
Let us confess not just for ourselves but for our leaders! We forget the sacredness of the land; we forget to love our neighbors who share our flesh, share our bones, share the same blood. We hurt the land and abandon what is loving and sacred in our relationships with neighbors.
II.
An ancient writer had to remind the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 26:1-11) that they had not always held what they considered their property. Their houses, farms, streets and cities had belonged to others before them. Once they too had been exiles and foreigners, once they had been homeless wanderers, fleeing from captivity, until God found them a home.
The book of Deuteronomy instructed an ancient people to remember their heritage, remember the years they had wandered, the years when a sacred spirit, a powerful wind and a pillar of fire, had led them into a new home place. Remember that in the beginning and in the end, it wasn’t theirs to abuse!
It’s easy to live as though we are entitled to the prosperity, the power, and the glory. But the owners know deep down it isn’t theirs—it can be taken away. So, the longer we have security the more insecure we become. The more power we possess, and the more we rely on it, the more fearful we are in our hearts...and the more power we want. Call it the sin of ownership. But there is an antidote.
III.
Many, many years ago, when the young Jesus of Nazareth was just starting his work, the Spirit let him know what childhood teachers in the synagogue would have drilled into him already: that there was no future to be proclaimed without a memory of the past.
The Spirit let the young Jesus know there was no kingdom to be had, without deep roots in what the ancestors had learned in the wilderness. Obedient to the spirit, and living into the teachings of his ancestors, for forty days Jesus went out to remember whose he was, to fast, to pray. In the wilderness Jesus found the spiritual wherewithal to face temptation: the temptation that filled that land then; that fills this land now. In untamed country, he found the memory of a generous God, able to provide. In wilderness places, he found One who could sustain him. He experienced the power of a divine Spirit who would help him fight the tendency to power, influence, glory and allegiance, and most of all control! He remembered there. He remembered the ancient God whose presence had led his mothers and fathers into the land of promise. He remembered the still young God who sheltered him in the cold desert nights. As he walked through the hardship of this time, it was enough to lean on the arms of that God, walk on the earth of that God--embrace the sky of that God. It was enough to trust an all-pervading Spirit.
This trust that he learned in forty days of wilderness wandering never deserted Jesus. It was the preparation he needed to face into controversy, into powerlessness and betrayal, even into death. It stood him in good stead, alone on mountaintops and surrounded by crowds, alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, and facing the mob and Roman authorities in Jerusalem.
IV.
It is easy today to forget that God is in the land. The actions of powerful people treat God’s good creation at best as “resources” to be “developed” (we aren’t honest enough to say “exploited” any more). Many of us have a certain hardness of heart toward the land. We neither trust nor respect the living Spirit that inhabits this good earth.
It is so easy to stop trusting a sacred Spirit. Our whole world is built on trusting the spirit of domination. Just look at the three temptations Jesus faced—they are all about the twenty-first century.
Forgive me if I talk about the devil a little bit! This devil wears a three-thousand-dollar suit. This devil can fast track power and profits. “Turn these stones to bread: turn these shale rocks into oil! Worship me, I’ll give you the ability to transform natural resources hidden in the wilderness into precious gifts for humanity. And you can have it for a bargain price, take the rivers for receptacles, the sky for the leftovers from your smokestacks. Sign on the dotted line, never mind the people of Flint, the people of the Dakotas, the people of Hoosick Falls, of Albany and Schenectady.”
Or here’s one—“If you just worship me instead of that silly God of love, I’ll give you control over all the nations and empires of the world--- they’ve all been entrusted to me.” Empire building? Salvation by military might? Solutions from the chessmaster at the top? You can have it all if you only….such a deal! But the devil’s in the fine print! And organized evil likes to work from the top down. It is so easy to get sucked in to the politics of power and the power of money, the power of nation, state and empire.
But say Mr. Devil—aren’t you in the details? Whom did you say I have to worship? And whom am I going to pay off? Isn’t that our souls you are after? Or is it our humanity you want? Or just our bodies and the good earth?
Jesus responded by staying true to the Spirit that led him. What will it take for us to remember that there is a Living Spirit is in the land?
V.
Once upon a time I lived in a small city, not THIS city of course, a Connecticut city. But you can make your own connections. In that city, the mayor decided to re-develop the Green downtown, the common ground in the middle of the downtown. He got a federal block grant.
In the early days of that city the green had been a common pasture where the townspeople could bring their cattle to graze. More recently it had been a somewhat seedy park, where old men slept on benches and young children misbehaved. But now it was to become a glorious …well, a glorious… something.
Something with pavement. One of my good friends there, Tom Cornell, was heard to say, “They can stop calling it the Waterbury Green now. They have spent so much money to pave it over that now we can all just call it the Waterbury Concrete.”
The same administration that was so ready to pave over the green in favor of concrete was willing to pave over the plight of the homeless. It was willing to pave over the reality of poverty and violence in that little city. It was ready to pave over the powerless.
VI.
Malvina Reynolds wrote a song Pete Seeger used to sing:
God bless the grass that grows through the crack.
They roll the concrete over it to try and keep it back.
The concrete gets tired of what it has to do,
It breaks and it buckles and the grass grows thru,
And God bless the grass.
God bless the truth that fights toward the sun,
They roll the lies over it and think that it is done
It moves through the ground and reaches for the air,
And after a while it is growing everywhere,
And God bless the grass.
God bless the grass that breaks through cement,
It's green and its tender and it's easily bent,
But after a while it lifts up its head,
For the grass is living and the stone is dead.
And God bless the grass.
God bless the grass that's gentle and low
Its roots they are deep and its will is to grow.
And God bless the truth, the friend of the poor,
And the wild grass growing at the poor man's door,
And God bless the grass
A Living Spirit is in the land. Turn back to the desert and the forest, the rivers and the hills! Remember how close God is, how loving! Remember the times when God has cared for you in the wilderness. Get powerful, like the grass, breaking up that old concrete.
Let us remember the sustaining hand of a living Spirit, upon whom we rely. As we face the chaos that pervades our world right now, we need stories old enough, good enough, true enough to remind us in our bones of the reality of the Spirit...a Spirit capable of taking us through the impossible present. Some old truth breaking through like new blades of grass—like the crocuses that are about to rise up.
When we start to trust this God- Spirit again, a power emerges from within, a power that can help us cut through the hardness of heart, the mistrust and disrespect. In the memory, in the trusting, there is room for God to plant seedlings, new growth that will break through the concrete of consumption, break through arrogance, break through despair.
God is a Living Spirit, present and real…. In the end, it is not enough to rail against power misused! To resist that, spiritually, you and I need to remember, learn, grow, and yes, even be tested, to be made ready for our very own journey into the Promised Land. You and I have a pilgrimage to take, led by the Spirit. Yet if we do risk this radical reliance on God, we will start to see the new creation that is breaking through the old, tender strong shoots breaking up concrete, crumbling ancient walls.
Sense the Spirit, hear the wind, feel the breath of divine love, disrupting all our preconceptions and our plans. Trust the Spirit. Walk with Christ. It is a new day of promise and deliverance.