Being vs. Becoming
Sermon for Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 21, 2010
Texts: Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8
Being vs. Becoming
I just love Isaiah. I love Isaiah because Isaiah doesn’t do what I do and assume that what is apparent – what is right before me – is true. God declares through his prophet:
Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people.
Isaiah can look at the circumstances around him – circumstances that by all accounts were dire, having been thrust into exile by their captors - and say: I know you all think this is true, but it’s not. What is real, what is true, is what God is doing and will do. Let’s live into that dream, Isaiah tells the people. Let’s embrace and live into God’s dream for you and I rather than latch on to and guard the the former things, the things of old.
The Psalmist also dares to dream.
When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
He is reflecting on the time Israel was in exile, in captivity, during the time Isaiah is writing about. God, the psalmist declares, brought the people home! It looked very bleak, so bleak that it seemed all we had were tears to sow. All we had were tears. Have you ever felt that way? Ever feel as though you were in exile? Ever felt as though you were in captivity? Have you ever caught yourself remembering the former things – perhaps relishing the past? Ah, the good ol’ days, we often say. Isaiah and the Psalmist, while they can relate, wish to move us beyond that. They both insist that our good days are yet ahead of us. They both insist that God is always doing something new in our midst. They both insist that if we do not dream alongside God we will die in our tears.
Paul also dreams. Pressing on, knowing that what seems real, what is before his eyes, all of his own accomplishments and the things that he thinks make him secure and safe are not real at all – they are illusions. If anyone has reason to be confident in the flesh, Paul says, I have more! He ticks off all the reasons why he has every advantage. He was circumcised on the right day to be a faithful Jew, he was a member of the people of Israel but not just any people – the greatest tribe! – Benjamin. He was born of Hebrew parents and he even became a Pharisee, having all the training and knowledge of the law of Moses one could have. If Paul were writing today he might say he was baptized and a member of the body of Christ, but not just a Christian, a member of Marrow’s Chapel UMC – the best tribe among Christians! He was born of Christian parents and sat on the church council, knowing the ways of the church and her history better than anyone else.
Paul calls all of this skubalon – dung. It’s rubbish, he says. It can be thrown to the dogs. Paul knows that relying on himself, his own ability, his own history, his own story, the things he has done or accomplished in the past, while it may all be very good and great is a pile of skubalon when compared to what God has done and intends to do through Christ Jesus our Lord. Let me say that again: What you and I have accomplished, the things we have relied upon to get us to where we are today, your own history and your own story, as good as that may appear to you and to others, is nothing but a pile of dung when we compare it to the story of God and what God intends to do for us and through us in Christ Jesus. God’s dream for us is far bigger than all of that put together.
So it is for this reason that Paul says – and I can just picture him rising up from his prison cell, with chains clanging against the wall and his ankles, with the prison guards just outside his cell wondering what this mad man is on about – I can picture him shouting at the top of his lungs:
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection!
What is real, Paul wants us to know, is the life, the death and the resurrection of Christ and the reality this unfolds for him…..and for you and I. If Saint Paul could confess that he has not yet arrived but must continue pressing on towards the goal, how much more true might that be for you and I this morning? Are we pressing on towards something new, something beyond what we presently are – are we becoming? Or are we being? Ask yourself this: Am I pressing on towards God’s dream for me or am I standing stagnant, happy to maintain the status quo? Am I imagining God’s dream for our church and the world or is it my own? Is it a world that is becoming or is it simply being?
Let me offer an example of moving beyond the status quo by looking at our gospel lesson today. We will always have the poor with us, Jesus says. There are at least 2 ways we can read these words. One way insists on being, another way is about becoming. The status quo, the illusion we love to believe, is that if Jesus said we will always have poor people than we will. Trying to do something about that is futile, perhaps even doubting Jesus’ own words. But dreamers like Isaiah and the Psalmist and Paul would have a different angle on this because they would insist that we see beyond what is apparent before us and see with eyes of faith – to dream with God. They would say that the reason Jesus said we would always have the poor among us is because so long as we are the church of Jesus Christ and doing as Christ did, the poor would naturally find us – they would seek us out just as they sought out Jesus. Why would the poor seek us out? Let’s let Jesus answer himself from two of his most famous sermons – First, his inaugural sermon in Luke 4, where again he quotes Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. He has come to bring good news to the poor. And second, his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew where he begins – his very first words are - Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
When the poor, the sick, the lost, the captives, the oppressed, the marginalized are not among us we must ask ourselves: Are we becoming the body of Christ?
Perhaps this morning you are feeling poor. Perhaps this morning you have arrived at a church not really knowing why but only knowing you are hungry. It’s a wilderness out there, and the wild animals are nipping at your heels. Hear Isaiah again: The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people. Or, maybe you realize this morning that your dreams are not big enough. Perhaps you realize this morning that you are tired of just being but desire to become.
This table is a dream. It’s a dream about becoming. It both roots us in what is real in history – the life, death and resurrection of our Lord – but it also casts our vision to a future where God will be all in all, where the lion will lie down with the lamb, where instruments of war will be beaten into plows, where the hungry will be filled, the tears will be dried, weeping will turn to dancing, the last shall be first and the poor will be made rich. Where the church is becoming the body of Christ, where she is embodying the life and the dreams of Isaiah, the Psalmist, Paul and of course, Jesus, you will find the hungry, the homeless, the crying, the sick, the lost, the lonely, the oppressed, the captives, the marginalized, the poor – you will find them because the story we proclaim here at this table is true. It calls us to become someone and something that is always becoming. See, I am about to do a new thing. Do you see it? Come…and become.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
“When the poor, the sick, the lost, the captives, the oppressed, the marginalized are not among us we must ask ourselves: Are we becoming the body of Christ?”
http://judahslion.blogspot.com/2010/03/where-is-jesus-and-his-church-t-here.html