Story of Joy- Rev. Karen MacDonald
September 30, 2007
Acts 8: 4-8
I. In the Previous Episode
In the ongoing story of the Jesus movement as told in the book of Acts, we heard last week the end of Stephen’s self-defense speech before the religious Council, who were trying him for blasphemy. As he closed his testimony, in ecstasy he related his vision of the heavens opened and Jesus standing next to God. At that, everyone in the council room dragged him outside the city and proceeded to stone Stephen to death-- a regular lynch mob. As he died, Stephen asked God to receive his spirit, and asked forgiveness for those who crushed him to death. A religious zealot named Saul oversaw and approved his killing. From that day on, a severe persecution started against followers of Jesus (who had himself been executed by the authorities)- people were tracked down, dragged from their homes, imprisoned, and they scattered from Jerusalem to save their lives. And the story broke off seeming as if all was lost….
II. Yet a Message
Yet there’s a message even in the darkness: MLK (paraphrased): “If a person doesn’t have something s/he is willing to die for, s/he has nothing to live for.” Dr. King lived and died for racial equality, driven by his Christian faith. Mahatma (Great Soul) Gandhi lived and died with the name of Lord Rama/God on his lips spending his life for self-rule, the elimination of untouchabililty, Hindu-Muslim unity, driven by his faith in God as Truth and Love. Aung San Suu Kyi has lived most of the last 18 years under house arrest for her insistence on promoting the cause of democracy in the face of the repressive military regime in her country Myanmar, and Buddhist monks and nuns are enduring guns and batons. Susan B. Anthony, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa, Oscar Romero- countless people have been willing to suffer or die for the sake of life. Most of us may not be the next Abraham Lincoln or Delores Huerta (but then again, who knows?….)
JOY--yet every one of us has something we can do for the sake of life. For what are you moved to put your life on the line? What gifts, what essence of yourself do you have to give? What’s your purpose in life? What does the voice of God within you move you to? The message in the darkness includes the call to listen within. Elizabeth O’Connor, in her classic book, Journey Inward, Journey Outward, describes the “wide way” taken by the “crowd,” in which people are too busy to come to the banquet of life; deaf to inner questions, but full of outer answers; in which everyone is the same and no one changes; where “things happen to them, but never in them.” (p. 5) By contrast, the “narrow way” is of authenticity and creativity and requires effort and introspection and faith in oneself and the God of life. Especially in the darkness, be alive to the “kingdom of God within you.” Starting within yourself, see the light that shines, that the darkness can’t overcome. That kin-dom, that light for us as Christians is the message of Jesus as a life-giver, a way to God, to the heart of life-- a message ignored by a materialistic world. As Jesus people, we carry in us the light of God’s radical hospitality, breaking down artificial barriers between peoples--a light ridiculed and persecuted by a power-seeking, categorical world, a world torn apart by war and self-centerdness and vengefulness and apathy,still. And the episode ends with everything seemingly being lost……
III. The Story Continues
But this is another Sabbath, another day of new life, and the story continues: “Those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word.” (vs. 4) Followers of Jesus were tracked down, beaten, chased out to be silenced, and wherever they ended up, they talked, they shouted, they prayed, they shared their good news of life in Jesus the Christ. And rather than being silenced, the message spread.
In his biography of Gandhi, Stanley Wolpert describes a cartoon by Bill Mauldin published after Rev. King’s assassination (20 years after Gandhi’s) in which the Mahatma waits on his mat in heaven to greet King, saying, “The odd thing about assassins, Dr. King, is that they think they’ve killed you.” (p. 266) The Truth--of forgiveness, of seeking God, of love, of Life--will out whether its messengers are ignore or ridiculed or arrested or tortured or killed.
And the Truth will come out in some unlikely places: Philip found himself in Samaria, of all places-- that land and people despised by self-respecting Jews, who considered them to be racial half-breeds, religious heretics, and traitors. John the Gospel writer notes “Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.” Yet there was Philip, proclaiming Jesus the Messiah to Samaritans….and they listened, and believed! and they were healed of demons and disabilities and there was great joy-- among those considered despised, unworthy!
First Cong. UCC finds itself a small, struggling, and lively congregation-- a church that almost died, who not only refused to give up, but who had the guts to call a lesbian woman as pastor and to keep going in faith. Together they’re still discovering the “juicy” news of new life in Jesus and daring to tell it, this insignificant, radical, welcoming band!
The Truth comes out in unlikely places, and amazing things happen: people do listen, because they’re hungry for good news and for love; spirits do come out, of shame, revenge, despair; paralysis is healed, of fear, apathy, cynicism.
Joy abounds--among those considered unimportant, queer, invisible!
IV. The Story Continues…
through the rest of Acts and sermons on it; and in us--in fact, we are the story, too,with Philip, and Martin and the Mahatma and Aung San and….Listen intently, continually to the voice of God, to the good news of life, to your spirit within you--experience it free you, feel it make you alive. And be the story, as you bring the love of God to all people and all creation;no noise will drown out our story of joy abounding!