Sunday, February 22, 2009

Last Epiphany B - 22 February 2009

Last Epiphany B - 22 February 2009
2 Kings 2:1-12; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9
James V. Stockton

“All it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.” It was said by 18th century Irish philosopher and politician Edmund Burke. I think in his day many people lived, as they live now, with the assumption that evil must work deliberately and hard, to overcome the inherent goodness of humankind. But Burke’s observation is insightful and persuasive, isn’t it? ‘For evil to gain ground, all that is needed is that good people do nothing.’

During World War 1, Martin Niemöller was a commander of a German submarine. So committed was he to the cause, he even commanded his crew not to rescue the sailors of a ship that he had torpedoed, but to let them drown instead. After the war, Niemöller began studying theology. But at least until the mid-1930s, he remained a typical Christian anti-Semite. In 1931 Niemöller became a pastor in the German Evangelical Church. This is the denomination known in our country as the Lutheran Church. Initially, Niemöller supported the rising dictator, Adolph Hitler. But as the Nazis increasingly interfered in the affairs of the Church, Niemöller began to oppose them more and more. Because of his outspoken sermons Niemöller was arrested in 1937 and imprisoned first in Sachsenhausen concentration camp; then moved in 1941 to the death camp at Dachau.


It is generally understood that it was there and then Dachau, that Niemöller came to understand something that he later expressed in one of the most well known quotes to grace the modern world. It appears in slightly varying forms. But here is the quotation in its original form: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-- and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

In his day, the prophet Elijah was the only one to speak out against the political abuses and the religious compromises committed by the rulers of his people in his day. A prophetic voice is always needed, and yet the prophet whose voice is raised is, more often than not, a person feared, despised, ridiculed by the some of the very people for whom the prophet’s voice speaks out. And so, in the Old Testament reading for today we see that as the prophet Elijah approaches each town with his successor Elisha, a company of more officially hired or ordained prophets comes out to him in fear and dread. “Don’t you know,” they say to Elisha, “that something is about to happen today?”

And we cannot really know why they say this. Are they attempting to discourage Elisha? Do they hope to prevent him from following in the bothersome steps of his mentor, from doing similar bothersome things such as telling the truth when they and the rest of the people would prefer to accept a comfortable lie. “God is going to take away your master today,” they warn Elisha. Are they trying to imply that God is going to punish Elijah with death? Are they trying to imply that Elisha should distance himself from the prophet and thus avoid the same sad fate? “God is going to take him away,” they say, “from you” “Come with us,” they seem to say, “and we’ll show you how to be safe and secure.” But Elisha seems to understand what they refuse to admit: that “all it takes for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing.”

The recent meeting of our Diocesan Council is but one more reminder that even in our own day, the easiest thing for many still seems to be to do nothing that disturbs the comfort of the majority, to do nothing that contradicts the status quo. The lack there of genuine discussion, reflection, and debate around the exercise of unilateral power by those who embrace the privileges of authority but who abdicate it responsibilities reminds us that the prophetic voice is still today feared and disdained, hated and ridiculed. And if anyone supposes that I am referring to my own meager attempts and those of our ECR delegation at this or other Diocesan Councils, please know that I am not. Because as important as ours is, both in our own diocese and in the wider world around us, the voice that is most needed today is not just mine or ours. It is the prophetic voice of the gospel.

It is the prophetic declaration of the Love of God Love for all. It is sadly true still today that, as the Apostle Paul puts it, the gospel remains ‘veiled’ to some. Whatever is this ‘god of the world,’ as Paul puts it, it has blinded them to the enlightenment of God. It has deafened them to the call of the gospel. It has rendered them numb the movement of the Holy Spirit within them and all around them. It may be the hope of higher status, the intoxication of proximity to power, the pleasure of frustrating the opposition while getting absolutely everything that one thinks one wants. But whatever it is, Jesus bids his followers to come up higher.

Today one among us is baptized into Christ. He is baptized into the life, the death, and the risen and eternal life of Christ. He is baptized into the fullness of the mystery of Christ made present in the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. He is initiated into the presence of Christ alive and lively in that mystery and mess that is the sacramental people of God. And he is initiated into the sacramental and prophetic witness of Christ made present to the wider world around us by you and me together, in who we are and in what we do. And while I confess my personal bias, I declare today: there is no finer community than ECR with whom to begin this experience of the fuller embrace of God. There is no finer community with whom to ascend with Christ Jesus.

Rather than remaining at ease at the bottom, Jesus calls us to make the hard journey with him to the summit. Rather than enjoying the approval of our authorities and the acceptance of the chosen, Jesus leads us forward and upward to closer relationship with God. And we are climbing. As for the Apostles Peter, James, and John at the top of the mountain, so also you and I have forsaken our timid comfort. We do so in order to be available to that amazing, confusing, even terrifying possibility, that God might draw so near to us that we will see Jesus more clearly, we will hear God more plainly, and, yes, by the Holy Spirit, we will be changed more wonderfully.

You and I will not wait to rise up and speak out for those still denied their voice, those still denied their place at the table of our Lord. Like sheer cliffs rising up before us, fear threatens to stop us in our tracks. Yet, with Jesus Christ, we are now and shall continue climbing past fear; fear of persons that are darker than we are, or lighter; fear of persons who are poorer than we are, or wealthier; fear of people more liberal than we are, or more conservative. We shall continue climbing. Like chasms and crevices opening up all around, hatred hopes to swallow up our progress. But Jesus Christ is leading us safely over and beyond hatred; hatred of the gay person or of the straight; hatred of the immigrant or of the citizen; hatred of the homeless, the dirty, or the unemployed, or of the working, the clean, or the secure.

We shall continue crossing over and moving beyond. All it takes is for us to refuse to do nothing. With Jesus Christ we shall continue to raise the prophetic voice of the gospel. To the ears of those who are being told in Christ’s name, over and over and over, ‘No, no, NO,’ we shall continue to shout from the Love of God for all, “Yes! You are always welcome here.” To those whose hands have been pushed away, in whose faces church doors are padlocked and Christian hearts locked shut, we shall continue to reach out where they are, we shall continue to go to them and bring them in, to experience with us this prophetic community of good people; determined to do something because this is all it takes to prosper the Love of God for all.

And so may Almighty God, whose invites all our care, all our concern, preserve us in Peace, in Strength, in Joy, that no shadows of this mortal life may hide the radiance of that love which is immortal, and which God has manifested in Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

© 2009, James V. Stockton

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