By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, RectorOur opening hymn is one of those "old chestnuts" pretty much known to anyone who grew up in a mainline Christian tradition. The author of the lyrics from the year 1529 is Martin Luther, known as the great Protestant Reformer. His passion for God and the beauty of the church led him to speak up against its abuses and his protests became the match that set ablaze the long simmering anguish of a people in misery.
The emergence of the Reformation is a long, complicated and fascinating chapter in human history and the hymn we sang captures a glimpse of its passion and some of the elements of the conviction of its author. First of all, he wrote it in the language of the people and he used music that was popular and well known. In our day we sanitize the past, but Luther took a favorite tune sung in the bars for his tune while putting in it the lyrics we've come to know. Its orignal rhythm is different than what we're used to, and we tried it this morning going for the spirit of the hymn.
Our own National Anthem uses words by Francis Scott Key and also borrows the music from a German beer song demonstrating how we borrow from different sources to convey what we think people will listen to. Imagine if our hymn writers today took their lyrics and set them to the music being played in bars and clubs to sing in our morning service. Wouldn't that be a change of pace!
Being a man of zealous character, Martin Luther the musician once wrote in a book, that, "Next to the word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts and spirits... A person... Who does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs." -- Martin Luther, Reformer and Musician.
It's the passion of this man that is captured in his words, music and actions. It's also his strong conviction of the battle we do with evil. Evil is powerful and requires an equally powerful strength to overcome it. That strength, says Luther, comes from God. No one or no thing can supply us with the strength we need to overcome the evil in the world, only God.
Just as we in the present day like to sanitize and paint pietistic pictures of very earthy and rough characters in the Bible and church history, we have a tendency to minimize or relativize the evil around us. This comes in part from the very real dynamic of people who call out evil often pointing at others who point back at them shouting the same accusations and getting nowhere but deeper into trouble and solving nothing but creating bigger problems.
Never the less, evil exists. It grows in the fertile ground of greed, fear, intolerance and prejudice. Each of us is capable of tremendous evil on a personal level, evil we can do to each other, and evil we can do to ourselves. As a collective society we are capable of evil done to the environment and to whole segments of humanity.
One of the icons of evil is Adolph Hitler. But he was just one person. Without the help of others around him, he couldn't have gotten anywhere. Books are written about the dynamics involved in people's participation in evil through ignorance and denial as well as outright complicity. Genocide in the concentration camps, eastern Europe, Africa, the American Frontier West, all have stories that should be told and secrets that are kept about evil.
Using food and medicine in a global poker game for economic gain is evil. Focusing hate on groups for their color, ethnic background or sexual orientation, or for any reason is evil. That kind of evil is aggravated by the calculated use of it to keep the spotlight off other abuses perpetrated by government or corporations on the societal level and individuals on the personal level.
There is evil in the world. Heinous crimes against individuals and societies. Human rights violations, abuse of the environment -- intentional wrongdoing and giving pain for reasons ranging from greed to sadistic pleasure. Evil exists. It's devastating in its physical damage and devastating in its spiritual damage. The existence of evil through intentional wrongdoing is the premise of the Noah story. If nothing else, it tells us that evil has always existed and always been a puzzle for people to face. But intentional evil is not the only form of suffering.
So is catastrophe from natural disasters. So is even the natural loss of life, property, jobs or reputation. From large scale to the small and everyday, pain, hurt and suffering are part of the world and part of our lives. Some is caused by others, some is simply part of the natural world and some we cause ourselves. In his Epistle to the Romans Paul talks about how we all fall short of the glory of God. In the end, he reassures his readers, we are loved by God and embraced by grace.
The question raised for me in these readings becomes what do we do about it? How do we maintain our balance, our spirit in the face of any mishap that befalls us? The people suffering in China, the atrocities of the wars we're fighting and the deaths and injuries related to it, all the way to the arguments we may have with our spouses, partners, friends or children. How do we deal with these things?
Jesus said, "Not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father..." In a more expanded study I'd try to demonstrate the point that I'll make briefly here, namely that rather than keeping people out of heaven, Jesus is stating a spiritual truth that it takes work, spiritual work, to confront the pains and sorrows of life. The Kingdom of Heaven can be defined in many ways, but one way is surely the sense of peace and serenity we can find in our lives. And it takes more than complaining to God to achieve that.
When I'm on the tread mill after lunch I'll cry out Lord, Lord I feel sick. And the voice of God says, not everyone who calls out Lord, Lord, will get into good shape. Wearing the latest work out gear and sitting on state of the art machines isn't enough to lose the weight or build up the muscles. It takes work. Having a nice briefcase and suit isn't enough to make it in the business world. It takes work. Not everyone who says, 'Lord, Lord' will succeed. But the ones who do the work that needs to be done, will achieve the goal.
So it is in spiritual matters. When Jesus talks about building a house on a foundation of rock versus a foundation of sand, it certainly seems to refer to the kind of discipline we engage in our spiritual practice. Prayer and meditation, the study of scripture, the wrestling with issues of faith and the participation in a worshiping community is an intentional discipline, sometimes fun and easy, sometimes not so. But necessary in any case to build a spiritual life.
In the news recently Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The Kennedys have been larger than life American icons for well over a generation. Despite one's political leanings we watch this family in fascination. Tragedy and folly, hubris, accident and illness have visited them often. Some of the suffering has been from outside their control, much of it has been from within, and again as St. Paul says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet, one of the most fascinating aspects of this family is the strength of the faith they share that allow them to overcome tragedy and personal failings.
One of the most moving accounts of that family's journey for me was reading that when she heard about John Kennedy's assassination, Rose Kennedy went to church to pray.
When devastation hits we can be paralyzed, embittered, or die inwardly. Or we can grieve and overcome. Whichever we do is a matter of our strength and choice. And not ours alone but that of God working in us. Working in us, not for us. One of the hardest lessons humans can learn is that we have to do our own spiritual work, no one can do it for us. Plenty can help, but we still have to do the work ourselves. This work is what Jesus refers to as building the house on a foundation of rock.
What is the work? Prayer and worship. Meditation. Scripture reading. Self examination and confession. Self care and laughter. Living with intention, generosity and gratitude. It's not really difficult, but it does take attention and intention. There are very few things in life we can predict, but good times and bad times will come. Good times we know how to handle, bad times... not always so well. Scripture gives us a handle on how to start. Our life here builds on that. Our worship, prayer, singing, outreach and fellowship helps us. Our study and prayer groups help. There are many ways in side and outside this church that will help, but it's work that we each have to take on for ourselves even in the company and with the support of each other. The good news is that God is with us during our spiritual work, our joys and our sorrows. God is the source of strength we draw on to confront the evil and mishaps in our lives. And God is the glint in the eye when our joys are full.
Martin Luther wrote and sang his songs with passion and faithful fervor. We can sing them to articulate ours, or we can write our own. There's many a beer tune waiting for new words.
Amen.
© 2008 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ
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