Co-missioners,
Today we share a revised version of Lori Cornell’s homily at our recent Crossings conference. Lori preached at the Tuesday evening Eucharist. Our thanks to her for having taken the time to prepare it for publication.
Peace and Joy,
The Crossings Community
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Not the God We Want, but the God We Have: Thanks be to God!
A Homily on Luke 4:16ff
by Lori Cornell
Grace and peace to you from Jesus, who loves us fiercely. Amen.
Floods and fires seem to consume more of our minds as we see the effects of climate change. The fires that have ravaged Southern California are just one example. So many firefighters are needed for the California fires that they have to employ minimum-security-prison inmates to walk into the furnace and risk their lives for $5.28 an hour. Fire Jumpers, who drop into the danger zones, are called in from all over the United States and elsewhere. But the parched landscape seems to welcome the fires. And it’s too late for residents to follow the landscape guidelines that the state has encouraged. So they and we watch as their neighborhoods burn to the ground. Those of us who are spectators long to be able to do something but know that we are not equipped. And it will be a long time before we can do anything of significance to help. Sure, we can pull out our Visa cards and contribute to Lutheran Disaster Relief or Red Cross, but It hardly placates us or puts a dent in the problem. We feel useless.
We stop watching and listening to the news. It only reminds us how little we can do and how powerless we feel. We avoid magazine articles that remind us of the inevitability of climate change. Our imagination runs wild with apocalyptic thoughts: Individuals and states battling each other over water rights. Farmers wondering how long their irrigation systems will support their crops. More and more wildfires popping up in the places we least expect. Meanwhile, the oil industry is laughing all the way to the bank, while impoverished souls find themselves dislodged from their homes because they can only afford to live in danger zones that flood or catch fire. We go to sleep at night with our minds racing. We are so distracted by our dark thoughts that we even forget to pray.
We want the confident preacher from Nazareth who is ready to set the captives free, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, to intercede. In fact, we’d love him to put out fires like a superhero, and stop our ongoing sense of uselessness. Where is Jesus when you really need him? We forget that these fires are the product of a drought, and our human interference or neglect of nature. Maybe we should be praying as well as confessing our sins, but we are too distracted by our reeling thoughts.
We have a problem with God. God’s not the magician who makes hard situations go away. God’s not the one who bails us out. Instead, we are confronted with all the ways we have fallen short in caring for creation and one another. And any guilt or anxiety we experience is ours to own. God did not do this to us. We did it to ourselves. God is there only to remind us, so that we might drop to our knees and give up the fight to make God in our image.
The Son of God shows up in his hometown to give his inaugural sermon. He’s not a firefighter nor is he a superhero: no superhero would give his life for you. He’s the one who brings good news to the poor, and sets the captive free. He gives sight to the blind, and proclaims the year of the Lord‘s favor. He is the embodiment of God‘s love for us sinners. He’s the fulfillment of God‘s grace in the flesh. He doesn’t just care for us, but takes on a cross that he doesn’t deserve, forgives with his dying breath, and gives up his spirit. He is the sacrificial lamb, who dies once, for all. That all includes you and me. He is laid in a grave that’s not his, and fulfills God’s will. So, on the third day, God raises him from the dead.
Jesus’ resurrection life is not just a reward for his good behavior before God. His resurrection is for us. So he binds himself to our death, and gives us his life. In the waters of baptism, he drowns our illusions that we need a superhero. Instead, we get a God who walks with us daily through the fires of our lives; and calls us beyond ourselves to the neighbor who really is in need.
Knowing that Christ takes away our anxious lives and gives us forgiveness and new life, means that we can rest in his mercy. Even when circumstances are difficult we realize that—while we can’t fix the world’s woes—we can live in the world more easily because Christ has pledged himself to us. Instead of sitting on pins and needles, we take one day at a time, and ask, “What can I do when others are suffering?” With hope in Christ we look for the small things we can do with great love.
Then we check our anxious thoughts at the door, and look toward the neighbors within reach whom we can love. We visit a parent who’s lonely; we accompany a family in our congregation whose home has burnt down; or we take on a couple of hours at the church food pantry. And if the time is right, we put together a “listening and praying team” to accompany those who are able to help to remove the wreckage and give aid in rebuilding after the SoCal fires. All of this because of the love of Christ for us. Amen.
