August 24, 2014
“Escaping the Dissonance”
It is great to be back within this community following a summer sabbatical. These last 90 days I focussed on rediscovering harmony…spent time resting, reading and studying, reflecting, writing, practicing yoga and most importantly, of course, enjoyed wonderful quality with my family. Thank you, United Church, for the gift of sabbatical. My prayer is that this time away will serve not only as a gift for my family, but will be a gift that keeps on giving. Let us pray…
Holy God, Rock beneath our feet, Messiah, we know that we are limited in our understanding of truth and light, that flesh and bone alone cannot reveal to us the depths of your truth, the magnitude of your love for us, so speak through me, above and below me this day, that we might each know your voice and the harmony that exists within your stead. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight. Amen.
While dabbling in home-brewed harmony this summer with a newly walking talking delightful toddler by my side, no matter how hard I tried to create distance between our lives and the obsession with the information infestation that is our society these days I could not escape the fact that in every tabloid on every news station, every backlit screen, status, tweet, photo, the words and images haunting our humanity were anything BUT harmonious.
As the musicians among us know, Harmony has an opposite…an evil twin… rather than a consonance, a chord or interval which sounds pleasant to the ear and is considered “stable” - MaryBeth?, Dissonance is displeasing to the ear- for most, and is said to be a set of notes in “transition” and, thus “unstable” and without resolution. MaryBeth? As you may know my wife, Shannon, is a musician and holds two Master’s Degrees in Music, and she has described dissonance as a necessary means to a perfect resolution. She states that holding dissonance can be very uncomfortable for some, especially those who are not confident in their own positions- this would be “me”… I am most comfortable standing beside Shannon while singing because I can just blend right in with her… nobody will hear me if I mess up and I can simply “drop out” if it gets too difficult. But maintaining dissonance, she says, holding your own through the tension, and then resolving in perfect harmony is unlike any other experience.
As when an a’cappella group dazzles us with their showy runs above and below the staff, then invites us into the dissonance just before each member gracefully resolves into a perfect cadence: many voices, one sound… harmony.
The anticipation of resolution, the hunger for stability, the yearning for a society at rest, yet black and brown bodies are still lying-in the streets, Guns are being paraded in and throughout our children’s front yards, we are romanced with celebrity suicides-yet completely avoidant to discussions around mental health….we post videos of torture and death on technological platforms and call it “social-izing”. Friends, we are a people caught in the dissonance…unsure of our own positions, fearful and oftentimes slave to these transitions, afraid to hold our own until tension gives way to resolve, taken in by the clanging symbols of oppression, pride, of evil threats that leave us nearly deaf to the possibility of Harmony.
But rather than allow a message laced with the possibility of Christological and Ecclesial HOPE, this morning, though clouded with scenes of contempt, in the way of the Holy Spirit, let us look to the lectionary to our Gospel text to guide our steps as we discover new ways to wade through this dissonance together.
The text, found on page 7 of your bulletin, comes from Matthew’s gospel the 16th chapter where Jesus invites Peter, and all of us, followers of Christ, to live into the courage of our convictions.
The story of Peter’s confession and Jesus’ bold claims about the Church are also found in Mark 8:27-30 and Luke 9:18-22, and are told basically the same way in all three versions. Jesus had been in the Galilean region performing miracles, gathering and teaching among the gentiles, repeatedly harassed by his adversaries, instructing his disciples with parables, and finally, in chapter 16, during the climax of his Ministry in Galilee, Jesus poses an important question,
Let us hear these words from Holy Scripture,
Matthew 16:13-20
13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
“Who do YOU say that I am?”
This question hits Peter hard. Having been rebuked over and over again by his rabbi, at Jesus’ question he drops his head hearing the words, “you of little faith” echoing through his mind with the distant image of Jesus on the water, his feet giving way beneath him, and in that very moment his shame and guilt, the dissonance intimidates, threatens to steal the life-giving opportunity that Jesus is offering him even now. The opportunity to claim his identity as a truth follower, to fill out the shoes upon his own two feet, to tune out those clanging symbols, the slander, the invitation to dismiss with honor the power of God’s living breathing word… “Peter, Who do you say that i am?” But this time rather than turn in shame and regret what was left unsaid Peter raises his eyes to Jesus and the two see each other and know each other, and Peter owns the only truth he has ever been certain of in his life that this man standing before him is surely the Son of God, the Messiah promised to deliver God’s people. And with utter resolve, Peter states, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”.
Not unlike Peter we all have a hard time looking Jesus in the face sometimes and tend to drop our heads when confronted with our convictions. I don’t believe for a second that the police force of Ferguson, MO teaches their cadets to fire at every black teenager who looks suspicious yet Michael Brown’s body lay dead in the middle of the street with six bullet wounds in the middle of the afternoon. I am sure that when ISIS leader, Abu Bakr was a 5 year-old boy himself playing in the middle of the dusty streets of Iraq making cars out of tin cans with his friends Genocide and his role in it could not have been more foreign to him. Small town residents of Murrieta, California shouting “Go Back Home, Go Back Home” to mothers, baby's and children who stare wide-eyed out of the glass windows at the dreamless reality that has become the new American Dream. Even in the state of NC our most experienced teachers, those who have held our children’s hands, tied their shoes, taught them to read, to write, to love math, to excel in the arts and cheered them on at graduation are being demeaned seeing years of their lives spent nurturing our babies cashed in for pennies. And what is our response?
Who do YOU say that I am?
Without envy we, in the majority, tend to empathize with the frontline oppressed among us, we stand-up, we sit down, we get on buses and ride for ours, we hold flags and wave them in the sky, sharing seats, elbow room and even toilet paper with strangers, we paint signs and even our bodies, we shout and sing and dance in the streets, we cry and scream and don’t bathe ourselves, we sleep in tents, we eat sun-baked hot dogs and carry our water bottles, we hold our wrists together and our heads held high as we are led in chains to our tomorrow mornings where we start over, and hope against hope that what we do makes a difference.
Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, clothed here in a proclamation of faith was as crucial to Peter’s well-being as it was to the rest of Christendom. Peter is both expressing, with revelatory power, his belief in Jesus as the Christ as well as his belief in himself as a disciple… a worthy disciple no longer a slave to his misgivings, bound by the past, but with an emboldened spirit Peter is able to move forward in faith- claiming the truth which is literally standing right in front of him- not taking his eyes off Jesus this time he proclaims, “You are the Christ!”. Setting himself free to hope against hope, to betray the cowardice of his own flesh, Peter becomes of the Rock out of which Abraham and Sarah were born and reborn. Like a Hebrew midwife who risked her own life to protect another, Peter’s bold confession of faith, a latitudinal line by which those eating the scraps from under the table could measure their birth rites finding themselves as guests gathered at table as well with a stable place to call home, to rise and fall upon, to be born again and to ultimately die in resolution.
What is our response? Who do WE say that Jesus is? Is there room for harmony to infiltrate the caverns of your dissonant soul this day, are there seeds scattered throughout empty vessels in this room waiting for conviction to invite a war within you showering your intimidations with life size drops of courage and a wellspring of HOPE… Where our thirst and hunger have known no more than a bitter face or a carcassed grave the Christ of our inheritance beckons the will to relinquish her fear, to raise her eyes and look him directly in the face, to rise up out of the waters and walk on steady ground proclaiming “Messiah”, Christ, Son of Man”.
In Romans we hear Paul urging the church, “by the mercies of God, to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which he called their spiritual act of worship.
Present your bodies… marching in the streets alongside the children of Ferguson, MO over 100 clergy and supporters used their bodies to tell the story, to proclaim Truth, Life, and Resolution. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, standing as witnesses around the state capital building hundreds of voices for peace and justice, many of you from this congregation, joined in solidarity and were taken to prison. A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God… this living sacrifice contrasted with the Hebrew text where bloodshed and an eye for eye meant one life for another… As our very own brothers and sisters are being killed in front of our faces, our beloved aged loved ones tossed aside as scraps as leftovers, we as a nation must consider what sacrifice means…to offer ourselves in dedication, to stand firm through the dissonance, to answer the call of Jesus…to step out in faith. Who do you say that I AM?
2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect…and most importantly, if we read on we find an antidote to live this life worthy of our callings, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another
Friends, we can persevere in the face of the evils of our days together, side by side. I pray that no day stands too long for this congregation, no law too finite, no border too closed, no piece of paper thick enough nor sanctions strong enough to limit the power of your convictions. Where God has blessed, and believe me we are floating in these baptismal waters even now, let no one not even the innocence of our confusions, like Peter’s, who nearly drowned in his fear, let no one convince you that the dissonance is as good as it gets, because until we have tasted harmony, friends, humanity will NOT let us rest. What is our response? Let the Psalmists words go before us and behind us, and this be our prayer:
Psalm 124
1If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—let Israel now say—
2if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when our enemies attacked us,
3then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;
4then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;
5then over us would have gone the raging waters.
6Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
7We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
8Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
May it be so and every day. Amen.
Prayer: Messiah, Christ, Son of the Living God: We come to you with open arms, with open hearts, with bodies presented you as living sacrifices. Instruct us this day to the way forward, call upon us to stand firm upon the rock of Christ, give us the keys to the kingdom that we might invite others in. Challenge us to move beyond our places of comfort, to rise up and look you in the face, to let go of the shame and guilt that keeps up bound up, limited, afraid, and stuck in the dissonance.
God, where there is pain and suffering, where we feel broken and unable to move breathe peace and wrap your loving arms around us, as your body also has been made a living sacrifice send it once more in flesh and bone to hold, to love, to walk alongside and lead us this day out of crippling pain, bodies that fail us, spirits that need your hand to guide us.
God, where humanity has refused to care, where violence and hatred are substitutes for peace and love send us to front lines, call us to be your voices, your body, our love…may it be so. amen
Welcome/Offering: Friends, we gather here as a community of faith of friends, and family of visitors and passers through, and what we know to be true is that when we gather in the name of Christ, and call upon the spirit of peace and grace we can find her here. God invites us all to this beloved community, no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey… you are welcome here at United Church of Chapel Hill. We are Open and Affirming, God is Still Speaking congregation of the UCC where to believe is to care; to care is to do.
In this spirit of Welcome I would like to invite the ushers to come forward for the offering, and to invite you to please sign and pass the friendship registers. In order for us to get to know you a little bit better, whether you are a long-time member of this congregation or are a new face in our midst, we’d love to get your email address, your snail mail, a note about how we can best serve you, or just simply your names would be nice too. Please sign those registers and send them down the pews… it’s always nice to get to know the people you’re sitting next to. Now, let us come to this time of offering with our Gifts, offering ourselves and our tithes back to God.
