9.15.24 "When Time Runs Out!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Proverbs 1.20-33; James 3.1-12

Wisdom cries out in the street … in the squares she raises her voice. 

At the busiest corner she cries out … at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing …

And fools hate knowledge?

The ancient writer looks around and sees a troubled world … a world where too many people fail to grasp the reality of the day …

Going about their day-to-day tasks … like the proverbial three monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil … 

The ancient writer knows better … 

A life lived in a silo hardly qualifies as life … 

The ancient writer goes on … when the day of calamity comes, as it surely will, there will be little sympathy … you had your chance to live and grow, but you chose to be small rather than great … you retreated into ignorance rather than taking up the tasks of wisdom.

You closed your eyes to the evil all around you … 

You didn’t hear the cry of those in need and pain … 

You certainly didn’t speak evil, good for you, but you didn’t speak good, either … 

You were silent … when your should have spoken out … 

You turned away … when you should have seen what was happening … 

You closed your ears when you should have paid attention.

The life and words of the Rev. Martin Niemöller come  to mind …

Martin Niemöller was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany. 

In the 1920s and early 30s, he sympathized with Nazi ideas and supported right-wing political movements. 

After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and saw what was happening, Niemöller became a critic of Hitler.

He spent the last eight years of Nazi rule, from 1937 to 1945, in Nazi prisons and concentration camps. 

Niemöller is best remembered for his postwar statement:

First 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 for me.

As some have said: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

In the early 1990s, when the Presbyterian Church was in full out battle with itself on the question of homosexuality …

My associate minister and I were chatting about it … her brother was gay, that I knew … we had welcomed to our building PFLAG - Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays … we were doing a lot to support, welcome, educate, and inform … the church had a few gay members, one of whom was a deacon … 

Across the denomination, the battle raged … there were those who said, Whoa, stop a minute, go no further … we need more time, to read the Bible, study, and pray … we need more time.

As my associate and I were chatting, I mentioned this to her … she knew that I was an advocate, but when I said, Perhaps more time is needed for more folks to come on board.

She replied, and I’ll never forget: My brother doesn’t have any more time.

She might as well have hit me over the head with 2 x 4 … 

I realized - I wasn’t paying attention … I was treating this as an idea, a concept, something to be studied, and that more time was needed to bring about healing in the denomination …

I realized - what I thought to be an idea to be studied, was a life and death reality for others … their lives, their faith, their dreams, their safety, their jobs, and families, were on the line … 

The argument for more time may have some value, and we should always remember “haste makes waste.”

But we also need to know - delay can be deadly when life hangs in the balance.

African Americans know the story all too well … throughout the South, during the turmoil of the Civil Rights era, whites frequently said to the African American, Slow down, you’re going to fast … be patient … continue to pray … we need time to change.

When, in fact, there is no intent to change whatsoever … when the powers that be are thoroughly entrenched, and not about to budge, no matter what. 

How much more time is needed for justice?

For truth?

For what every heart knows to be right?

There were those who refused to wait any longer.

Voices were raised, marches organized, people joined together … people spoke out, held hands, and marched … people sang together, We shall overcome …

There is evil in this beautiful world, more than enough to go around … 

And within our very own heart, we can beat a hasty retreat from the struggle … 

I have enough on my plate … I don’t want any more.

I’ve got bills to pay, and a job to do.

My plate is heaped high … I don’t need any more, 

Goodbye, good day … I’ve enough to chew.

What would have happened in Nazi Germany if more folks had awakened to the horrors of Hitler … his book, Mine Kampf, written in 1925, laid it all out … but folks were hungry for assurance and pride … Hitler promised to make Germany great again … Deutchland uber alley …

Some saw the truth, but millions closed their ears, their eyes, and said nothing.

Last Sunday, I said:

Learn to be unhappy … in the best sense of that word … to be discontented, to protest, to challenge  … to know there’s something better to be had … that our present social malformations are not set in concrete, but can be changed … to weep with those who weep says the Apostle Paul.

Across the world, in every age, there are those who keep the wisdom … they pay attention, they bear the burdens of responsibility … which I think Jesus intended - when he said, Take up your cross and follow me.

I love to follow Jesus, but do I have to take up a cross?

Just how responsible do I have to be? for the welfare of the world, my own behavior?

There’s no clear answer to the questions … questions I need to live with … and you do, too …

To look at Christ and hear his words.

To see him on the cross.

To say within ourselves a quiet little prayer:

To you, O LORD, I give myself, I give my life and care.

I give my eyes to see the world.

I give my ears to hear the cry.

I give my mouth to speak the truth.

For time runs out.

The day is soon gone.

Lives that wait.

Must wait no more.

Amen and Amen

August 22, 2010, "Jesus Didn't Wait"

Luke 13:10-17

Do you notice anything unusual about the timing of this healing?

That’s right … on the Sabbath … and let me ask you a question, “Why didn’t Jesus wait until the next day?”

After all, the woman suffered her infirmity for 18 years … couldn’t she have waited 24 hours?

I imagine the synagogue leader taking Jesus aside later in the day, saying to him, What’s your hurry Jesus? This woman could have waited 24 hours. You could’ve healed her tomorrow, and everything would have been just ducky. Why did you did have to do it today, on the Sabbath? What’s the rush?

The synagogue leader is right.

Jesus could have waited.

The woman could have waited.

Everyone could have waited.

And the results would have been the same.

The woman would have been healed.

Folks would have seen it.

No rules violated.

No laws broken.

All would have been ducky.

Couldn’t Jesus have waited?

Of course, he could have waited.

Everyone could have waited.

24 hours.

That’s all.

I bet all the Gideon Bibles in the LAX Hilton that if ya’ had asked the woman, “Can ya’ wait 24 hours?” she would have replied, “Of course I can. I’ve been sick 18 years; one more day isn’t going to be the end of me.”

Jesus could have waited.

And everything would have been fine.

But Jesus didn’t wait!

And that begs a question.

[what’s the question?]

That’s right.

Children ask it all the time.

“Why?”

Why do waves crash?

Why does the sun shine?

Why do birds sing?

Why do I have to go to bed right now?

Why?

Why didn’t Jesus wait?

Because Jesus is God-with-us!

God in the flesh.

God, here and now.

Yes, just a man.

Born of Mary.

But God-with-us.

Who suffered rejection and humiliation.

Dying cruelly at the end.

At the hands of the State.

God-with-us on that cross.

Executed by Rome.

Between two terrorists.

God-with-us on the cross.

Because Jesus didn’t wait.

Mercy can’t wait.

Love doesn’t wait.

God doesn’t wait to forgive and make things right.

God doesn’t wait to love us and make a way for us.

God doesn’t wait for us to get outta the way.

God doesn’t wait to heal the woman afflicted for 18 years.

Time and again, Jesus comes against the rules and regulations of religion.

Everyone’s upset.

What kind of man is Jesus?

What kind of a God is this?

Didn’t God institute the Sabbath Day?

Didn’t God create the rules and regulations that govern it?

Six days you shall labor, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On that day, you shall do no work. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.

The Fourth Commandment.

But Jesus didn’t wait!

What’s up with God on this one?

Does God change God’s mind?

Does God contradict God’s own ways?

Or is it possible that we’ve misunderstood some things?

Is it possible that what God intends and what we do with God’s intentions are two different things?

That maybe we don’t always get it right when it comes to the things of God?

Remember Jesus in his hometown synagogue?

His first public sermon?

He spoke of God’s redeeming ways, of God’s love going to work, and everyone nodded their heads and said, What a good preacher he is.

And then Jesus began to speak about Elijah in a time of great famine.

That God sent Elijah, not to the house of Israel, but to the home of a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon, and provided food for her … and she was a Gentile.

And how there were many in Israel with leprosy, but not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian.

And then all the people in the synagogue were furious.

They know what Jesus was saying: God’s love is bigger than you are … and they didn’t like that one bit.

They got up from their pews, then and there; they took Jesus to a nearby cliff and tried to kill him.

God-with-us is not always so easy to handle.

God-with-us says this is the way, this is the truth, and this is the life.

And it may not be our take on things.

God’s people frequently get it wrong.

Our ways are not God’s ways.

And that’s a hard lesson to learn.

Especially for God’s people.

Even when we are absolutely convinced that we understand God, it’s likely that we don’t.

God says Keep the Sabbath day holy.

And that means, totally devoted to God.

Don’t work for yourself – ya’ got six days for that.

But on the Sabbath, deal with God.

Jesus says to the folks there in the synagogue – if you have an animal tethered on the Sabbath, do you deny it water? Of course not! Ya’ untie it and take it to the well for a drink. And if you wouldn’t treat an ox or ass this way, why treat this woman this way and deny her the water of life?

Because our ways are not God’s ways.

The super-religious of the world have it wrong.

The Bible-thumpers and the go-to-hell preachers have it wrong.

And why that should be, I don’t know.

Why did the leader of the Synagogue miss the point?

Why did so many of the religious authorities in Jerusalem miss the point?

Why did so many professors of theology and so many pastors sign on with Hitler?

Why did so many Presbyterian pastors deny the humanity of the slaves and tell their folks every Sunday that slavery was a God-given mandate?

And why were women told to stay in the kitchen and let the men handle it?

Why were women denied ordination for so long?

There’s a lot of wrong in the church.

And there was a lot of wrong in Israel.

In the hometown where Jesus was raised.

In Jerusalem where he died.

God’s people are often the last people to get it.

That’s why God has to come against us sometimes.

Because God is always more than we are.

God is always bigger in love than we are.

To make a point: God’s love doesn’t wait.

Throughout my ministry, I’ve heard good and decent people say a common four-letter word … easy now … calm down … don’t head for the gutter … a four-letter word that begins with the letter “w.”

Hazard a guess?

That’s right.

WAIT!

Since 1976, the Presbyterian Church has been considering the question of ordination for gays and lesbians. And for many of those years, I waited!

I read and I studied.

And I waited.

It wasn’t clear in my mind, so I waited.

I’ve always been an open-door kind of a guy.

I knew some gays in college, and I was appalled at the words my friends used about gays.

I tried, in my own way to befriend the few gays I knew.

I said “Good morning” in the classroom, and I had lunch with them a time or two.

I was ordained in 1970.

It wasn’t a question then for most Presbyterians.

I sort of accepted the maxim: “The Bible tells me that gays are just lost, that homosexuality is wrong, sinful, and abomination before the LORD, and they’ll all go to hell when they die if they don’t repent.”

That’s what I thought the Bible said.

It wasn’t an issue.

So I could wait.

And then I read my first Bible study on homosexuality in 1976.

And my eyes were opened.

I was wrong about what I thought the Bible said.

I said what a lot of pastors said, “We can welcome gays into the church, but we can’t ordain them.”

So I waited.

In the early 80s, I had a funeral for a young man who died of AIDS.

I called on him in the hospital.

He was so bitter.

He was a gentle soul, an artist and musician, but the church had told him that we he was no good.

That he was going to hell.

The church slammed in his face every door it could.

I knew his parents and siblings, and they were a loving family … deeply and faithfully Christian.

I began to think all the more.

I began to teach.

It’s not gender that counts.

It’s how we live that counts.

That’s what the Bible teaches.

And then in 1992, an associate pastor came to work with me.

Her brother was gay.

Her parents were involved in PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and I had never heard of the organization.

We talked a lot.

I told her, “Wait!”

And Wendy said to me, “My brother can’t wait any longer. And neither can my parents. And neither can I.”

And I thought, and I thought, and I thought. And I waited.

I prayed and I studied, and prayed some more, and I waited.

And then folks like James Dobson and Chuck Colson began to weigh in on the issue … Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority … James Kennedy and Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale.

They didn’t wait.

They shouted, “We have the Bible on our side.”

And I said to myself, “No you don’t. That’s not what the Bible says!”

But Dobson and Colson didn’t wait.

And neither did Falwell and Kennedy.

They wrote and they campaigned against gays and lesbians.

And millions of Americans believed them.

The louder their voices grew, the more disturbed I became.

Why should I wait any longer on this?

Dobson and Colson and Falwell and Kennedy do not represent me!

I am a Christian, too, and I see things differently than they do.

They’re not quiet about it.

So why should I be quiet?

I have a message, too.

And the message deserves to be told.

I will not wait any longer.

God-with-us doesn’t wait to heal the woman.

Jesus doesn’t wait even 24 hours.

Jesus heals her now.

Love has to be now.

Mercy and kindness are now.

That’s the God who saves us, now.

That’s the God who loves us dearly, right now and here.

The God who doesn’t wait!

Amen and Amen!