Lent 4 2016

4 Lent 2016 (Year C)

For today’s sermon, I once again chose the Old Testament reading, because it’s a really good one. So, for those of you who attend to such things, that makes two consecutive sermons using the Old Testament text for the week. Somewhere there are Old Testament scholars punching the air and high-fiving one another, because I don’t know how regularly this sort of thing happens.

That said, our reading is from the Book of Joshua, which continues the narrative of Israel transitioning from their wandering in the wilderness, to their possession of the Promised Land. Where we pick up our reading is after Israel has crossed over the Jordan and are about to take the city of Jericho. And we’re told that God says to Joshua—the man who took on the role as leader after the death of Moses—God says to him, “ Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” After this, we read that the people kept the Passover celebration, and their diet moved from being manna, the heavenly bread, to the the crops and produce of the land.

Now this was a big transition for Israel. Not only had they passed through the river Jordan on dry ground—just as they walked through the Red Sea—but now they are becoming more independent as a people. The “honeymoon” (at least as God saw it) was coming to an end, and Israel would soon be claiming their identity as a people, with land and everything.

What God was referring to…”the disgrace of Egypt…” was not only the fact that they had been slaves. Instead, the disgrace was that during this time of wandering in the wilderness, the first generation were already circumcised—which was considered a sign and reminder of God’s covenant with Abraham. But it seems that while Israel was in the wilderness, many of them didn’t keep with this tradition (much to the ease of most of them, I’d imagine). Except…what this inferred was that they no longer identified fully with what it meant to be a descendant of Abraham, and therefore an Israelite. So, God’s words about rolling “away the disgrace of Egypt” are offered after all of the men have been circumcised, and are once again observant of the covenant law. What’s more, they have chosen to fully self-identify as God’s People, Israel.

While all of this sounds painful, at the very least, I think it’s also important to realize that this is a tremendous step for these people. I mean, sure it was 40 years that they were wandering in the wilderness, but that was only one-generation-removed from being slaves in Egypt. And for those people who left Egypt, we need to remember that Israel had been in slavery there for over 400 years. So, this means that not only were everyone in their families slaves, and all of their neighbors and their families—but it meant that everyone that any of them could remember in their family tree were slaves.

And yet, when we think of the fact that they were finally being delivered from slavery, and were going to be led to a land that they had been promised through Abraham—we may wonder why in the world why it took so long for them to come around, and why they were so resistant to God’s plan… I mean, even when these people had just walked out of Egypt, after being witness to a whole bunch of plagues…even after having the Red Sea open up to allow them to cross, and then close to crush Pharaoh’s army; the first thing they do is start complaining. There’s a chance that some of them might have had to step over the bodies of Egyptian soldiers just to walk up to Moses and tell him how much they missed eating cucumbers back in Egypt. Can you imagine one of these people walking up to Moses and saying something like, “Moses, look we’re all glad you got us safely away from the soldiers and chariots, but we were all just talking, and we wondered if we might just head back. There are a lot of us who really miss the cucumbers we had when we were slaves…”

Maybe I’m being a bit facetious, but the cucumber thing really is mentioned in Scripture. But the thing is, whether the issue was water, being tired of manna, missing the food they had in Egypt—whatever—the issue wasn’t about any of those things in particular. Instead, what it was really about was the fact that these were people who had been slaves their entire lives. Everyone they knew were slaves, and everyone in their cultural memory had been slaves as well. And while we may think that after all of that, freedom should sound like the greatest gift ever—instead what we find is fear and trepidation. Because, even slavery being as terrible as it was, it probably still seemed better than the uncertainty that came with the promise of freedom.

Now, this may seem like a strange idea, but whether we talk about this sort of thing in terms of “Systems Theory,” group dynamics, or any of it—the truth remains that people can become accustomed to things, even if they’re unhealthy, or dysfunctional. What’s stranger still is that even when such people can recognize how messed-up their circumstances are, they may still continue in the same patterns simply because it’s what they’ve always known.

This actually reminded me a little bit of the “Black Consciousness” Movement in South Africa in the 1960s. As some of you may know, there was a system of racial segregation called Apartheid which had been enacted in 1948 by white South Africans. This led to drastic inequalities along racial lines. And among the various challenges to Apartheid, one was the “Black Consciousness” movement.

What this movement basically sought to do, according to the movement’s founder, Stephen Biko, was to change the self-image of black South Africans. It was his belief that because these people had spent generations being treated as second-class citizens, or worse in some cases, that even if they were granted equal rights overnight, the people would still fall back into old negative patterns because it is all that they had known.

In later years, people like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu would find this idea of black consciousness to be vital in their work of racial reconciliation. This is because as much as the wounds of racism needed healing, the hearts and minds of the people also needed to be healed so that there could be a more complete reconciliation.

Looking back at this reading from the Book of Joshua, then, perhaps there is some resonance of this same idea to be found there… Not only do we see this group of people who have never known any different way of life—even if they could imagine one—but, it isn’t until this act of reclaiming an identity apart from the identity of slavery that they become something other than slaves.

This of course can even make sense for us today. Obviously the issues surrounding race, religion, sexual identity and orientation come to mind—and each one of these could offer more than enough material for sermons. But, I think even if we were just to consider this idea on a personal level—on the heart level, I think we can begin to recognize the same patterns we see in in God’s People, Israel, as they emerge from slavery.

And yet, even if we’re ready to consider healthier ways of self-understanding, the fact remains that we often find ourselves (I hate to say) longing for our time in bondage…longing to remain in unhealthy patterns, unhealthy relationships, even unhealthy attitudes simply because it’s all that we’ve known. Even in spite of how painful remaining in such patterns may be to us, we find that we’re willing to stay with it, or even long for it.

  

While some of us may relate to this personally, or are able to immediately think of people we know who fit this description, I’ll add that this can also be a challenge for churches, or any organization for that matter. See, the way this works sometimes is that people within a community, or a church may get to a place where they recognize that change is absolutely necessary to the life of the congregation. Some congregations go so far as to hire consultants to figure out what needs to be done, while others may commit to an action plan. Still others may even oversee staff turn-over as a way of getting a fresh start in a new direction. But, that’s to say that there are even situations where change happens first, and the realization that more continued change is necessary.

Whatever the circumstance, though, unless the church is diligent in its work of change and growth, what happens instead is a kind of contraction of energy. Suddenly the excitement of new ideas and plans begin to seem like too much work. Or the reality of how much needs to be over-turned, looks insurmountable. Before long the excitement tends a bit more toward impatience, and impatience leads to anxiety. Suddenly the way things were no longer seem like such a bad thing, and the changes that are beginning to happen seem messy and uncomfortable. And it’s in this place when a congregation has to decide whether they have faith in what they believed God called them to become—or if it might just be worth going back to the way it was because it seems a lot easier… But, that’s to say, like Israel, there’s really no way to go back.

  

The thing is, in this case I don’t believe that making a decision for change is simply a matter of taking a risk, or just making the decision to commit. Instead, I believe this choice is a matter of identity. What I mean is, the question is not just one of whether or not a church could be better after change and transition as opposed to what it was in the past. The question is whether or not being faithful to our call as the Church—the Body of Christ—can be done if we remain static.  

Obviously this isn’t a question that can be answered quickly, or without some prayerful consideration. But at the same time, as we approach the celebration of Easter—the central feast of our faith—the question of identity as people of the Resurrection should not be a new one for us. In fact, I would even say it only serves to clarify the question of identity further, both for each of us as individuals, and the church as well. So, the question becomes, since we can’t go back to slavery in Egypt, and we can’t go back to the tomb…what will it take for each of us, for St. John’s, to claim what it means to be God’s Resurrected People?