A Sermon on Rats and CRT

Scripture: Philemon, Luke 14:25-33

ENTRY
In August we were selling our house and our family spent a wonderful week 
on a lake deep in the Adirondacks.
On the last day a real estate agent called to tell us 
that a Man had entered our home while we were away.
We were frightened.

We spoke with the state police and learned that it was a young man 
I will call Jesse who lives around the corner - 
We were told that he has used and sold drugs since elementary school.
His parents threw him out of their home because he was using meth.
He looks for empty houses like ours was and enters; well known to police.
He doesn't know what's going on; out of touch with reality.

The Police sent Jesse to a mental health facility, but he was soon released.
Jesse returned, entered our porch, left his bag of clothes.
Again we were afraid. I installed a new lockset on the porch door.

Local police said they can arrest him but he will be out on the street again.
They implied that New York's "bail reform" prevented judges from keeping him in jail. 
I have thought about this and do not see this as the true problem.
Bail reform prevents those accused of non-violent crimes 
from incarceration for long periods awaiting trial.
We wanted him to get help, but the deep problem is that our towns 
don't have the needed resources that might help someone like Jesse.
I needed to understand more about meth.

METH
Methamphetamine releases high levels of dopamine in the brain
making the user want more of it.
Meth use alters judgment and decision-making 
leading to risky behaviors because it interferes 
with thinking, understanding, learning, and remembering.
Long-term methamphetamine use leads to 
extreme weight loss, severe dental problems, intense itching leading to skin sores, 

            anxiety, confusion, memory loss, sleep problems, and sometimes violent behavior.

ADDICTION
When we encountered Jesse and the police, 
I stumbled on an article by Johann Hari about morphine addiction, 
and about something called "rat park" and "rat heaven."
The article described an experiment was done in the '60s 
with a rat in a cage, given two water bottles. 
One was just water, and one was water laced with morphine. 
The rat would almost always prefer the drugged water, 
and almost always kill itself very quickly, within a couple of weeks. 

Other experimenters in the ‘70s said, “Well, wait a minute. 
We’re putting the rat in an empty cage. It’s got nothing to do. 
Let’s try this a little bit differently.” 
So they built Rat Park, and Rat Park is like heaven for rats. 
Everything your rat could want: Great food. It’s got loads of other rats for fun and sex.
And they’ve got both the water bottles, one regular and one drugged. 
But in Rat Park, they don’t like the drugged water. 
They hardly use any of it. 
None of them ever overdose. 
None of them ever use it in a way that looks like compulsion or addiction. 

CAGES
So the experimenters concluded that something was wrong 
with our ideas about addiction. 
It’s not a moral failing as conservatives argued, 
and the drug doesn't take over your brain as liberals said. 
Addiction is about your cage. 

Addiction is an adaptation we make in response to our environment. 
It's the environment in which we live, specifically the systems we create 
which lead us to want and do certain things.
It's where we live and the conditions in which we live.

To think about addiction in humans and not rats,
we can see that we have created a society 
where significant numbers of our fellow citizens 
cannot bear to live their lives without being drugged. 
We’ve created a world in which individuals are on their own, 
isolated from each other, rather than engaged in social interactions.
More of us live alone than ever before, and too many of us

        binge eat chips and cookies and candy, or drink alcohol,
and binge watch Netflix and other TV outlets.
Too many of us are more like the rat in the first cage with limited choices, 
than like the bonded, connected rats 
in the cages that fulfill our social needs. 

So, the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. 
The opposite of addiction is connection. 
Our whole society, is geared towards making us connect with things
when what we need is to be more connected with people. 

This is a reason AA works; it connects people.
Here I was, reading about rats and cages, and I found the scripture for today, 
that includes Paul's letter to Philemon, about a slave he met in prison.

In first century Palestine 10-15% of the population were slaves 
and Slavery was considered normal.
Because the rich had slaves, most people who were not slaves 
had little access to employment, 
and were pushed into crushing poverty.
The SYSTEM of slavery caused poverty for everyone else (except the 1%).
These were the people Jesus came from, lived with, and taught.

Paul was much better off, but was jailed for preaching, 
which was "rabble rousing" to the Romans, 
inciting people to "foreign and subversive" ideas and customs.
Paul was jailed more than once, and once for two years, 
where he met Onesimus, a household slave, 
owned by a wealthy Jesus follower.
Slavery to Onesimus was like living in a cage, 
and he may have run away several times to be free.

Most of us cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to be a slave, 
but there are those among us who can.
Most Black Americans come from families with history in slavery.
Even when slavery as an institution was ended, 
the essence of slavery did not end.

One of my favorite singers is Nina Simone, 
made a Civil Rights song famous, 
"I wish I knew how it would feel to be free."
Little is known of the lyricist, Dick Dallas, there isn't even a picture of him. 
He wrote and she sang:
I wish I could break all the chains holding me.
I wish I could say all the things I should say
Say 'em loud, say 'em clear For the whole round world to hear.

I wish I could share all the love that's in my heart
Remove all the bars that keep us apart.
I wish you could know what it means to be me
Then you'd see and agree That every one should be free.

I wish I could give all I'm longing to give
I wish I could live like I'm longing to live
I wish I could do all the things I can do

Though I'm way overdue, I'd be starting anew
I wish I could be like a bird in the sky
How sweet it would be if I found I could fly

Oh, I'd soar to the sun and look down at the sea

And then I'd sing 'cause I'd know how it feels to be free....

CRITICAL THEORIES

When I learned about the Rat Park experiment,
I thought "Hey, this is CRITICAL ADDICTION THEORY."
That would describe how the experimenters looked deeply 
into the nature of addiction, learned new ways of seeing, 
thinking about, and understanding what causes addiction, 
how people become addicted, and how addiction behaviors can be changed.

Of course my labeling of this addiction problem echoes something in the news the past year:
CRITICAL RACE THEORY, which few people understand clearly. 
Basically, some lawyers wondered why all the new Civil Rights laws
in the 60's had so little effect on American society, specifically 

        why desegregating schools led Whites to withdraw their children 

from public schools and enroll them in private academies, 
leaving Black children in underfunded schools like where they began. 
This explained why Blacks continue to experience much of life in America as a kind of cage.

Our problem first of all is that we misunderstand the words "CRITIC" and "CRITICAL."
We commonly use those words to mean "making judgments," 
saying that something is wrong, and then blaming someone for it.
Ironically, that is what is being done to studies such as CRT
when CRT is blamed for imagined reverse racism.
Partly because of these attacks on CRT, there are now only 11 states 

        that do NOT restrict teaching about race in some way. 

But another meaning of "critical" is "to analyze and to think deeply about"
an issue or problem in order to uncover solutions to problems 
and deeper understandings of life.
Interestingly, in the churches about 150 years ago we had a similar issue 

                called "HIGHER CRITICISM" OF THE BIBLE" 

        which arose when scholars asked questions like:
    "Why are there two creation stories and different names for God in the Hebrew scriptures?"
    "Why are the first 3 gospels so similar to each other and so different from the 4th?'
Such Bible studies caused great anxiety among Christians 
who had been taught that the Bible was somehow perfect as it was
         and didn't need to be interpreted,
when actually the churches had kept the Bible in a cage 
                which prevented it from telling us the fullness of what was there.

And about the same time as I read about addiction, 
I read an article about how feminist writers are asking 
"Why is it that after 50 years of the struggle 
for women's equality, so little has been achieved?"
They described the cages women inhabit, but didn't use the phrase or name.
But I thought immediately, "This is CRITICAL FEMINIST THEORY."

This week (8-26) David Brooks in the NYTimes wrote about 
"Why Your Social Life Is Not What It Should Be," and the answer is
that the internet and our phones have become cages for us.
Brooks did not label it "CRITICAL SOCIAL THEORY" but I do.

We don't think we have slavery any more, 
but we are slaves to our old habits, our prejudices, and our phones, 
and any addiction that afflicts us.
We are prisoners no less than Onesimus, we are in cages no less than lab rats.
There are systems of law, banking, property taxes, technology, and education,
and probably some government and private systems I can't think of.
But we can list the institutions; the elements of society, 
that used to connect us with each other:
Schools, churches, clubs and organizations, performance places, 
and dare I say it? Bowling alleys (now "family entertainment centers") and pool halls. 
Many of these are shrinking or have disappeared,

        but there will always be bars and pubs.

We in the churches are on the front lines of the terrible disruptions of our times, 
which have separated us, driven us apart, and devastated these institutions.
I have few solutions to the problems of the churches, 
but we must know more about all of these things and think on these things
so that we can work ourselves out of these social problems.
We need to be critics in the best sense of the word
to see more clearly and understand more deeply what is wrong, 
and find the clues and the possible changes that we can implement 
that will bring us out of our separations.

We are gathered today, in social meeting with each other, 
in the formal ritual act we call "communion," 
        to celebrate the many ways Jesus sets us free, 
                to be more profoundly connected, and therefore more human.
This makes us, in a sense, "prisoners for Christ," as Paul described himself,
perhaps more able to give up all our possessions, as Jesus urges us in Luke,
because they imprison us. May it be so.

A Press Release -- Blue Neon Cross: More Than a Memoir

More Than a Memoir – Blue Neon Cross: 

                A Personal History of the Church in the Modern World

by Dennis L Maher, Dmin

Dennis Maher is a retired Presbyterian minister and church executive. 

The blue neon cross that glowed from above and behind the pulpit in the author’s childhood church in Sioux City, Iowa, left a lasting impression on him, becoming a metaphor for the church in the modern world.

The modern design of the ancient means of torture and death framed his quest for spiritual and cultural understanding. 

Deciding as a youth that the church had nothing to offer him, he describes the death of a friend, engagement to the friend's sister, and his decision to follow Jesus.

During the '60s racial justice and peace in Vietnam became his personal issues.

He taught school in Chicago, but his search for how to be a Christian in the world led him to enter McCormick Seminary. In so doing, he discovered that becoming part of the leadership of the church removed him from the world. 

He led congregations in Minnesota, and while serving a pastorate in New Jersey, the author earned a Doctor of Ministry in transforming organizations. 

He raised money for new churches and social justice programs in Chicago, led professional development within the Presbyterian Church USA in Louisville, and became a regional church executive in Peoria. 

Then he left to be Assistant Director of the Jesus Seminar in northern California. 

Reflecting on the theology of Paul Tillich and the thinking of Jacques Derrida, John Caputo, and others, he came to understand that the Spirit is what transpires between and among us, and that together we create the highest human values.

Maher now believes that God is the calling we experience to live according to the values of love and Justice.

----------

Published May 27, 2022.  Available at amazon.com.

Contact: Dennis Maher – reverendsax@gmail.com

Blue Neon Cross: A Summary and First Reviews

Why a "Blue Neon Cross?"

A cross was the Roman means of execution, but neon screams commercialism and suggests Las Vegas. So a neon cross represents the church in the modern world. Blue reminded the Presbyterian Scots of sky and heaven. 

The author became a Christian in Iowa City, a Presbyterian minister in Chicago, a pastor in Minnesota and New Jersey, led Professional Development for the PCUSA in Louisville, and was a church executive in Chicago and Peoria. 

He left to be Assistant Director of the Jesus Seminar. 

Along the way he tackled theology and spirituality, peacemaking and community organizing, saxophone and clarinet. Through remembrances and reflections, he tells how he concluded that Jesus was a Wisdom Teacher, Spirit is what transpires between and among us, and Love and Justice are God.

Readers say good things about this book:

A Presbyterian Leader: "A close up view of the decline of mainline Protestantism. Dennis has a lot of great stories to tell us. He can teach us about a few of our denominations' victories and even more about our colossal failures. I can safely say that Denny is responsible for many of the former and none of the later. A tale well told, Maher's account is honest, gutsy and accurate. It explains why most of the people in your town aren't active in the churches that their parents and grandparents founded."

A Jewish Marriage and Family Therapist: "I’m into Dennis’ book, Blue Neon Cross, and it is REALLY excellent. Beautifully written, engaging, smart, with lovely textured memory snapshots from all of the scenes of his life. I’m incredibly impressed with the detail of his memory. He artfully explores the influences of his intellectual and emotional life and their synergies. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone discuss the cross influences of their intellectual and emotional lives so engagingly. He wisely explores the spiritual, sociological, historical, economic, and interpersonal, facets of his experience, and discusses many of the current events that also influenced my life. VERY impressed! Highly recommend!!"

Pastor Colleagues: "...polished, personal, insightful, complete."

                "Your writing style is very easy to read. I find it compelling."

Life-long Friends:       "I can't believe you did all those things! Well written!"

                "You are a good story-teller."

My First Editor: "What a personal, intellectual and theological journey! Your honesty, insight, perspective, erudition and recall are astounding, Denny. It's a whole new book (or I just have a bad memory)! I really enjoyed it and am glad you stuck with it, reformulating it and raising it above a travelogue into the realm of literature. What a summation, what an investigation, what a consummation! Yum!"

                                                071422

The Politics of Eating and Drinking with Jesus

This sermon was delivered and surprisingly well received 

        July 3, 2022 at the Batchelerville (Northville) Presbyterian Church in Edinburg NY.

The texts were Galatians 5:1, 13-15 and Luke 10:1-11.

Please stand and say:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, 

and to the republic for which it stands, 

one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I have never led the pledge in a worship service before

or ever thought that I would do so.

I have always opposed having flags in churches, 

because I believe, both as an American and a Christian,

in total separation of church and state.

But today's sermon is about patriotism and freedom and our communion.

More than ever, we need to love our country.

The apostle Paul taught us that the gospel of Jesus is about freedom and justice, 

        which ties the pledge to our Christian faith.

The pledge was written by a socialist Baptist minister to affirm what had been won in the Civil War:

a single, undivided nation, with equality for all.

The words "under God" were promoted by a Presbyterian minister, who, I think,

        made a terrible mistake.

The pledge to the flag, said together by gatherings of diverse people,

proclaims that we love our country

because it is one, with liberty and justice for all. 

And at the same time the pledge proclaims 

that our love of country is conditional,

only so long as it is one, with liberty and justice for all

We owe no allegiance to an America that is not about freedom and justice.

------------

Eight years ago I began writing a memoir, and it is finally published.

It is Blue Neon Cross: A Personal History of the Church in the Modern World.

Writing helps me to think and I used to think 

I knew what the church and our country were about.

Writing this book was an examination into what I didn't know.

When I thought about the context of my life, 

I realized that we had always thought 

we were on the way to solving the problems of racism.

We had a Civil War over slavery and the outcome was 

that we would remain a single nation where all are free.

But events in recent years show that the Civil War continues and is not over.

As the southern writer, Faulkner, said:“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” 

We now see that our current disputes and conflicts among parties and groups 

have their roots in the very beginnings of our country.

In 1619 slaves were first brought here from Africa.

Slavery, inequality of income and wealth and limitations of opportunity 

are baked into our Constitution.

States rights, what government can and cannot do, who can decide,

whether the rich and powerful will rule, 

and whether slavery would be allowed:

These things are in our Constitution.

Somehow we forgot or ignored the racial warfare, the lynchings, 

the destruction of whole Black towns in the south, the riots in our cities 

that have been a part of our national history 

for more than two centuries.

We forget the labor strife of the 1880's through the Depression,

the attacks on Hispanics and Asians through all this history;

the mass deportations of Latinos 

and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

We forget the attacks on women who wanted to vote 

and on those who wanted the right to choose not to have a child.

We forget the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma 

by domestic terrorists,

and many want us to forget the assault on the Capitol building Jan. 6, 2021.

We don't think about them because we always thought 

we were gradually creating "a more perfect union,"

putting hatred and violence farther behind us.

And in the churches, we thought that believing in Jesus would save us.

It was all about personal salvation from personal sins, 

which no one could avoid, but believing fixed it.

You didn't even have to pay much attention to Jesus' teachings, 

because all you had to do was believe.

But we thought that we must believe certain things about Jesus and God.

We thought there was one religion (Christianity) 

and one Church (our own denomination); 

We thought we possessed the truth and pretended that the truth possessed us. 

But that Church and those beliefs have turned out to be false, 

an illusion, a delusion. 

The old faith had been proved false by the development and use of 

the atom bomb and by the holocaust, but we didn't want to admit it. 

We can now see postwar life, the advertising age, the military-industrial

complex, the corporatism, the commodification of everything, 

the consumerism – all of it was and is a bubble, 

which now threatens whole societies, nations, and the planet. 

----------

So I asked myself, with the church collapsing, what is worth keeping?

I now think that there are three essentials of Christian faith.

1. The first is Jesus’ teaching, especially of the Kingdom of God.

Kingdom was the same word as Empire, so the kingdom of God is God's Empire.

So Jesus in all of his teaching was illustrating a different kind of Empire 

than Rome’s.

The Romans would not have liked an opposing empire.

He was brutally killed for preaching that God was above Rome, 

that God’s Empire or kingdom was greater,

that justice was superior to victory, the highest value of Rome.

The message in Jesus’ teachings and the deep meaning of his life and death 

is political in nature.

2. The second essential is the cross, a powerful symbol in 4 ways:

It was the means of execution by which Jesus and countless others 

were tortured to death by the power of Rome.

It is the way Jesus died; an historical event.

The cross represents the suffering of the innocent, 

guilty only of opposing the obscene, tyrannical rule of the Roman Empire.

Jesus died innocent of any real crime; he died of a political execution.

The cross is the symbol for the ultimate integrity of Jesus.

Jesus died without violating the principles which he taught.

So he lived and died non-violently protesting the ways of Rome.

And the cross is a symbol for all the suffering of the world,

endured by all humans, because we live this life in this world,

where people who seek wealth and power 

kill those who are in their way.

Just about everything else you may have heard or thought about the cross 

is probably tacked-on to the truth, elaborately created to make 

the simple story of Jesus’ death from Rome’s cruelty 

mean something else, 

to serve the agenda of the teller of that tale.

The cross isn’t about sacrifice, 

or paying a debt to God who is offended by our sins. 

To teach that only gives power and authority to the institution of the church,

and its priests and ministers, which is what they always wanted.

The cross was not glorious, never was and never will be.

The ultimate contradiction and irony is a cross 

made of ivory, silver, and gold, maybe encrusted with jewels.

Or garish in neon, like something in Las Vegas.

3. The third essential thing in Christian faith: 

the communion table, our communion around it and our community.

Christian faith is not first of all about you or me individually, or our comfort.

Our faith is about community.

Community always involves politics.

----------

Many people say they hate politics 

but what they really hate is the lies that lead to corruption 

and the misuse of politics for someone’s personal gain.

The essence of politics is our deciding together 

how we should improve our lives, what goals and priorities we should set, 

and how we should attain them.

Very necessary stuff in our life together.

When we eat this sacramental meal together 

        and when the symbols of communion work,

        our eyes are opened to see and our ears to hear Jesus more clearly.

When we are gathered around the table, 

we are drawn under the influence of Jesus.

We put ourselves in a similar relation to him 

as had the first disciples who ate and drank with him.

The words of his teachings, the stories of his suffering and death, 

the promises of the fullness of life, 

are given texture and flavor.

If and when the supper transforms us, we can see God in each other,

in the world, and in the lives of people of other cultures and colors.

Then we can enjoy each other as we do God’s work

of healing and restoring the world.

If there is no community around the table,

if there is no exchange of ideas and affections; it cannot work.

But for you who live together as this congregation, 

community as sharing each other’s lives is possible.

Jesus’ idea of church was no more complicated than 

a table and benches, with bread and wine on the table.

This describes a good church supper. Amen.

A Time for War

The news has not been good in recent weeks.

Many of us try to avoid seeing the suffering and killing,

the death and destruction in Ukraine.

We turned away from similar horrors in Syria a few years ago. 

This feels different. 

The victims look more like us, and dress like us; 

        they are mostly Christian like us.

But in the current case we feel somehow betrayed because in 70 years 

        we have not seen an invasion for conquest of one country by another; at least not in Europe.

And America has not been innocent.
We just ended our longest war of all, in Afghanistan.
We invaded there to assert our will, as we had done in Vietnam and Iraq,
and if we are to criticize Russia, 
we have to admit that we were wrong in those “actions.”
Both Russians and Americans are more comfortable killing from far away
than up close.
And the threat of nuclear and chemical war is now spoken of as possible,
and we forget that the US is the only country so far 
to use nuclear weapons.

When I began writing my autobiography 
I thought that maybe a major theme of my life would be peacemaking.
I became Christian and entered seminary because of our war in Vietnam.
I have been opposed to wars and at different times 
a member of various peace groups.
In my book I wrote of my childhood fear of nuclear war.

As I finished writing my autobiography I realized that 
peacemaking had been a small part of my life, 
but that wars were the constant.
Some of you like me were born during or before WWII.
Then there was Korea, then the Cuban revolution and the missle crisis there,
then Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, 
various smaller wars in Nicaragua and Africa,
Bosnia, then Syria, and now Ukraine. 
Wars have been the bookends and the constant background of our lives.
But we have enjoyed peace.

Or have we?
When I thought about the context of my life, 
I realized we have not had peace in America.
We had a Civil War over slavery and whether we would remain 
a single nation where all are free.
We started a war with Spain and took Cuba, Puerto Rico, 
Guam and the Philippines from them.
We fought a world war to make the world safe for democracy, 
but that didn’t work well.
We fought WWII with Russia or rather the Soviet Union on our side, 
and while Hitler was defeated,
we ended with a divided Europe, a divided world, 
under the threat of nuclear annihilation.
And now China has become perhaps the greatest threat to freedom and peace in the world.

The world wars and conflicts outside our borders 
deflect and distract from our view the terrible divisions and conflicts
within our own country.
Our disputes and conflicts among parties and groups today have their roots 
in our war for independence.
States rights, what government can and cannot do, 
whether the rich and powerful will rule, 
and whether slavery would be allowed:
These things are there, baked in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
And so we forget the racial warfare, the lynchings, 
the destruction of whole towns in the south, the riots in our cities 
that have been a part of our national history 
for more than two centuries.
We forget the labor strife of the 1880's through the Depression,
the attacks on Hispanics and Asians through all this history;
the mass deportations of Latinos 
and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
We forget the attacks on women who wanted to vote 
and have a right to choose not to have a child.
We forget the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma
and many want us to forget the assault on the Capitol building 
Jan. 6, 2021.

I name all of these facts of history to illustrate
that we have always had 
and probably always will have conflict and war.
"There is a time for war, and a time for peace."
Life will always be a conflict over truth, what is right and wrong,
who shall get their way, and how we shall live.
Life will always be a choice between what is just and what is unjust.
Yet we have hope that swords will be beaten into plows.

But those who make war on others say, in the words of Isaiah:
“We have made a covenant with death,
    and with Sheol we have an agreement;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
    it will not come to us;
for we have made lies our refuge,
    and in falsehood we have taken shelter”

I preach these things today partly because too many people
on the left and right are saying that our president is doing too little
and that we should provide a “No Fly Zone” over Ukraine
maybe with jets provided by Poland or other countries
or maybe with our own planes.
This, it is said, will stop or slow down the brutal destruction 
of the country and its people.
I worry sometimes that the news media could lead us 
into another foolish war.

I conclude in my book that love and justice 
are above and beyond everything else. 
We give the name “God” to whatever lies behind justice and love.
“Justice is God” and “Love is God” come close to my creed today.
And yet justice has its limits.
We may wish to be right and just, 
but our actions will always have consequences, 
and as Obama said when contemplating action in Syria, 
                ` “I wish to avoid serious unintended consequences.”
This is a warning to us if we contemplate getting involved 
in the war in Ukraine:
A writer in the NYTimes yesterday [Tanner Greer]:
“Any realistic assessment of the policy options 
available to the Western powers 
must begin with a sober appraisal of the situation on the ground — 
even if that means contemplating a settlement 
that falls short of justice.” 

I don’t want anything short of justice.
Some of the psalms pray for the destruction of enemies,
“...destroy all my adversaries, for I am your servant.”
Like the writers of those psalms 
if I could convince an interventionist God to destroy the Russian army, I would.

But I want to tell you a story:
A campus minister invited me to speak at an anti-war event in 1980
at Rider College in Trenton NJ. 
I showed up for what became a debate between me and a history professor, 
who argued that the Soviet Union represented Communist ultimate evil. Fortunately, I had studied some Russian and Russian history 
and was quick to explain that “Russian” regional interests 
of expanding westward and southward 
were the same nationalist goals of the czars, 
and not new evil, ideological, communist goals. 
As the debate moved on, I sensed soon that I was in the weeds 
and that the professor had a much deeper well of data to draw from. Then I remembered who I was, and I spoke as a Christian minister, 
a follower of Jesus and the prophets, 
who was there to witness to justice and peace 
against zealous nationalism that would justify more nuclear warheads. 
So I said:
Jesus told us that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.
Jesus taught us not to resist violently against those who are evil.
Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to be peacemakers.”
I appealed to a spiritual approach to life
rather than a purely rational calculation 
of threats and counter-threats by world powers.
Students afterward told me that they thought I had “won” the debate.

It may be a shock, but the earliest communities of Jesus followers were pacifists,
because of the teachings of Jesus I read this morning.
If you turn the other cheek you may get beaten to death,
but the person who beats you wants an excuse to beat you more.
Fighting back would be that excuse.
We saw examples of this on television this week when we saw 
small crowds of Ukrainians stopping a tank by standing in front of it
and shouting “Go home!”
This what MLK called “non-violent resistance.”
He learned that from Ghandi, who used such tactics 
to drive the British out of India.
Most people think pacifism is “non-violent non-confrontation” 
or “passive non-violence.”
Jesus non-violent, but resistant.
So he said: “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.”
Roman soldiers were required not to force a citizen 
to carry something more than one mile.
So Jesus said, “Insist on carrying the burden 2 miles 
and make it hard for them to ask you for anything.”

A reality in the gospels is that if you love your enemies, 
they are no longer your enemies.
We are right not to think ill of the Russian people.
They are not our enemies; 
the leaders and oligarchs are enemies enough.
If we were to enter the war, the Russian people would see us as their enemies.
They would be galvanized behind Putin and against us as he wants.

Yes, I would like to destroy Russia’s army,
but there would be unintended consequences 
that probably would not lead to greater justice and a more sure peace.
The justice that is God will have to wait.
Ukraine will lose much in this war.
I would like to see Russia rebuild Ukraine and pay 
for the damages and death it is inflicting, but that is unlikely to happen.

None of us and none of the commentators on TV, or the generals, or those in the WH, 

        or the Capitol know what will happen next, 

                or what terrible decisions they will be required to make.
We can only hope that they maintain their peaceableness, 
that they hold fast to their love 
and the high value they give to justice,
                        and not do anything stupid.
--------------
Prayer:
In our peace and prosperity, our wanting for nothing, 
in our choices of which clothing or shoes or foods or cars 
or houses or tvs or couches or recliners to buy,
we stop and in this moment, perhaps in many moments,
We try to imagine what it would be to flee from our homes, 
to leave our country knowning not where we will land.
We try to imagine what it would be to stay in cities and villages 
targeted by bombs and artillery and rockets, 
not knowing where they will land.
Will it be near us or on us?
We try to imagine learning to shoot and the smells of gasoline 
to be mixed with soap poured in beer bottles, stuffing them with rags.
Our minds and our hearts are with those we love and know who suffer, 

        but also with those in Ukraine who flee and those who stay,
who need food and water and shelter and showers, 
who need strength to go on while grieving .
We seek healing of all the differences that divide us 
and all people from one another.
We want to transcend desires for revenge.
We desire wisdom to act in ways that will bring justice 
and an end to hostilities, 
and wisdom to face up to the endless problems that we make for ourselves.

 

True Lies - a Sermon, February 20, 2022 - A critique of the PCUSA "Matthew 25 Vision"

This sermon is not about the 1994 film. (Everyone agreed that it was a good film.)

It is not about half truths or little white lies.

It is about the stories we read and see in film

that are lies but which might teach us something.

This is about scripture that purports to be one thing but is another.

Scripture that fools the reader into thinking 

that Jesus said something that he did not,

or did something that he did not do.

Scripture that tells falsehoods but often in order to tell a truth, 

while still being false in other respects.

My bias is that I worked for and still work with the Jesus Seminar scholars 

who are concerned with what Jesus most likely said and did 

in order to better understand the 2000 year old traditions 

about him that we have inherited.

This sermon began when I discovered only in the last few months 

that our denomination, the PCUSA, began a program 

several years ago called “The Matthew 25 Vision.”

The only churches that would know about this tend to be urban, 

or with pastors who identify strongly with denominational leadership

as I used to be.

Congregations are being recruited to lead members to commit in new ways 

to be disciples, followers and students of Jesus Christ,

more deeply and more seriously than ever before.

THE PROGRAM has three parts: 

FIRST, because this story is about helping others,

the hungry and thirsty, the naked, the sick, prisoners. 

So the denomination is teaching us to address systemic poverty, 

by seeking to change conditions which cause poverty, 

including sharing our wealth to lift them up.

We will help the poor, but not only by directly helping the poor.

A lot of people are confused when overly educated nerds like me 

speak of poverty as “systemic.” 

What this means is that being poor has been found to be the result of 

political decisions, and cultural habits of treating the poor differently, 

                as inferior to the rest of us.

This is dangerous stuff to some. Sounds like socialism. 

But Jesus was a kind of socialist. That is another sermon.

SECOND, because this Mt. 25 story speaks of strangers and prisoners 

this program addresses systemic racism.

(This is the stuff that is now banned in 7 states and may be banned in another 16 states this year.)

Race and ethnicity defines most strangers. 

They are non-white and non-European, 

        and most prisoners fit this description.

We imprison those who are most strange among us, 

and people of color are obviously different.

Our prison policies and practices directly come from the time 

of slavery when militia hunted down runaway slaves

and Jim Crow laws put Blacks in prison 

where they did the forced labor they had done as slaves.

It is “systemic” because they mostly do not have the wealth or education, 

and the opportunities and acceptance by the justice system

that would keep them out of prison.

Furthermore, it can be shown that we as a society 

have created these conditions.

So the Mt. 25 project encourages us to open doors, break down walls, 

        and challenge hate to overcome our differences and our indifference.

Violence is not in this story, but it is a concern in the news today 

and is related to poverty and racism.

We can observe that violence is often committed by poor people of color. 

I listened to a podcast the other day where residents of NYC 

explained clearly how systemic racism and poverty create violence.

THIRD, the Matthew 25 project focuses on Congregational Vitality

encouraging all of us to look at ourselves 

and find ways to live our faith, to stand up for Jesus,

and to show Christ’s love by speaking truth to power, 

I just learned of this program early this year.

10% of congregations have signed on since 2019.

A lot of materials have been produced; 

I downloaded and read many of them.

At first, I had difficulty getting my head around the program.

It took a while to figure out how they related 

systemic poverty and systemic racism with the scripture, 

because of course these were not terms used in the first century.

But I did that for you a few minutes ago.

Before I explain the great truths in this scripture, 

I need to tell you the lies,

because there are some big problems with the scripture

and therefore with the Matthew 25 program.

The first thing to say is that THIS IS NOT A PARABLE told by Jesus

BUT A FICTIONAL STORY:

Some of the materials for the Mt 25 Vision call this story a parable.

But as I have said before a parable is a special kind of story 

and if we lay all of them out next to each other 

we can see how and why they are told.

They are stories about nature or about people doing common tasks,

or involved in common conflicts, and they end oddly,

often completely opposite of how we think they should.

They don’t have a lesson or moral at the end, 

and they are not allegories about God. 

(An allegory is a story about one thing that is really about something else.)

If they do have such morals or lessons, 

we can usually see that someone added it to the original parable,

                and by removing it we can better understand the parable.

Such stories  with morals or as allegories don’t comport with other things Jesus said, 

but rather Jesus seems to have told parables as puzzling stories 

in order to get people thinking and talking about the issues he raises.

Real parables are discussion starters about the mysteries 

of the ways of the world and of faith, 

like sowing seeds or yeast,

and how people should treat each other, 

like the prodigal son or the good samaritan. 

The Second PROBLEM is that JESUS DIDN’T TELL THIS STORY:

Jesus no doubt told his disciples to feed the hungry, clothe the naked,

welcome the stranger, and visit the sick and those in prison.

True sayings of Jesus are clearly seen in the Luke 6 passage,

but Jesus did not put them in the context of the last judgement.

Too easily we lump all scripture together as if it were all equal 

and can all be harmonized with everything else in the Bible.

But there are many authors of bible books and stories.

They often don’t agree or are in conflict with each other

and sometimes they purposely tell us things that didn’t happen,

because that was the normal and usual way 

of telling stories and writing history in the first century.

The Jesus scholar, Dominic Crossan, has said repeatedly that

                        “It is not that those ancient people told literal stories 

                            and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, 

                        but that they told them symbolically 

                            and we are now dumb enough to take them literally. 

                        They knew what they were doing; we don’t.”

The THIRD PROBLEM is that this story is about “The Last Judgment.”

It is a type of story called “apocalyptic,”

which meant revelation of meaning, but came to mean 

a prediction of the end of the world.

Jesus didn't tell apocalyptic stories.

There are several places in the gospels where Jesus is reported 

to have told stories about the final judgment by God 

of those who have violated his will.

Again, if we lay out all the teachings of Jesus side by side, 

we see that these kinds of stories are few 

and they don’t sound like most 

of the other stories and sayings of Jesus.

In fact, everyone agrees that the most common thing Jesus taught

is the kingdom of God, and we better understand this in recent years

not as a future event of judgment 

but the way God wants the world run now, politically and economically, 

as opposed to the way the Romans and other tyrants 

since then have run it.

In other words the stories and sayings of Jesus about “apocalyptic” 

are lies written by others and put into his mouth.

People tend to tell apocalyptic stories when their societies are collapsing,

but that is another sermon.

But the FOURTH and biggest problem is that this is a story 

of judgment and punishment and revenge.

Words given to Jesus about judgment and punishment and revenge 

don’t fit the rest of his story.

Jesus did not speak of punishment and revenge in these ways,

but observed that the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

Our responsibility is to be just.

In this story it is as if a different Jesus has appeared, 

not the one about love and mercy and forgiveness,

but as the judge of righteous vengeance.

We tend not to notice this because it’s scripture, right?

So this story is not a parable, Jesus didn’t tell it, 

Jesus didn’t tell stories about the end of the world 

rather than the world we live in, 

and Jesus isn’t coming back to judge and punish anyone. 

Those are big problems to Bible scholars and ought to be to us.

[And if we lay out all the words of Jesus we see that he didn’t seem to talk about himself, 

except in the gospel of John or elsewhere as the cryptic “son of man,” 

    so the story fails on that ground.]

NOW I CAN TELL WHAT IS TRUE in this story,

the truths in a work of fiction, the truth told through the lies:

We don’t notice there is anything wrong with this story because

it includes what we expect from Jesus: 

Feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and those in prison.

There are literary twists in this story that really drives home 

Jesus’ concern for people in need.

He calls “the least of these,” my brothers, my family!

Who among us sees or in Jesus' time saw the poor and the immigrants and the prisoners as family?

The teaching to help those in need is intensified 

by making sure that we all understand 

    that we are all one family including those who are the worst off.

The twist continues when the story has Jesus say

“When you help the least of these, you have really helped me.

   I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, and  in prison.

  And if you don’t help them, you are not helping me, 

you are making me to suffer.”

Wow. Everyone would want to help Jesus, 

    especially those who call Jesus “Son of God.”

And so those who don’t help the needy are called “accursed”

    because they don’t see Jesus in the poor and the marginalized.

Wow.

In a hundred ways we usually hear or speak of the poor, the strangers, and prisoners

            as "accursed."

Jesus is saying according to this story, 

        that people in need are NOT the dirty inferiors we see and try to avoid, 

        because they are humans like us.

They may have been born into terrible situations

but they did not start life as bad or criminal or violent, 

and now they are not so different as poor and despicable,

                but they are humans like us in need.

Those in need are the Christ, because they are of God, 

they have the image of God in them,

they are children of God, our brothers and sisters.

We ought to get it, because this story makes that connection.

Do we?

One commentator says:

                    "Feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, and visiting the sick 

                    are mundane acts. 

                    In this sense 'virtue is not far from us, 

                    it is within us, and is easy if only we are willing.' (Anthony the Great)

                    The Son of Man does not demand supernatural feats 

                    but simple, unobtrusive charity.... 

                    Charity is accordingly the true test of faith." (Oxford Bible Commentary) 

The positive side of the lesson today is seen in the teachings of Jesus from Luke 6, 

        which is Luke’s “sermon on the plain,”

                a different version of what Matthew tells as “the sermon on the mount.”

These are hard lessons on how to live and how to respond to oppression and violence 

with non-violent resistance, 

                showing the violent that we will not be sucked into it as they expect. 

The violent always want us to respond to violence with violence

because then they can say, “See, you are violent, too!”

So through this story we have learned again the golden rule;

that we should do for others what we would want them to do for us, if not for Jesus.

When we help others we are helping ourselves.

We should help others in need 

        because there for the grace of God or luck or good fortune, 

                we would be in the same lot.