Pent 16A
A displaced person, also called a DP, is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, sometimes due to forced migration or a complete loss of home. Originally DP was used during WWII to refer to refugee outflows from Eastern Europe, where people were displaced from their native homes, forced off their land and thus became homeless, refugees, prisoners or recruited labour. Over the last 65 years the term displaced person has been expanded as vast groups of people around the world have been displaced and forced to migrate due to war, civil unrest, famine, or natural disaster.
This morning we find the Israelites in the desert; a gangly group of displaced persons fleeing the tyranny of the Egyptian Pharaoh and a life of oppressive slavery. The people are wandering, seeking a home. Home comes in an unexpected way –not in a homeland- rather this group of displaced persons is given a set of commandments with which to form a community; a community that was to be based first in relation to God and because of this relationship, a relationship with the each other.
Oliver James in his book, “Affluenza”, comments that psychologists squabble over human beings fundamental needs, however, psychologists do agree on 4:
Human beings need to feel part of a community
Human beings need to give and receive from family, neighbours, and friends
Human beings need to feel competent, not useless, but effective in chosen tasks
Human beings need to feel autonomous and authentic; masters of their own destiny, not living behind masks
Did you hear the first fundamental need? People need to feel part of a community.
That is what is happening as we have journeyed through the book of Exodus. We are watching a bumbling group of mis-matched people become a united community. The words we hear today in the Ten Commandments, as they have come to be called, are the parameters of interconnectedness –how they are going to treat each other as people living together. The Ten Commandments were a created as a freedom to live righteously with maximum love for God and neighbour.
In 1915 when the fore-fathers and mothers of this congregation gathered together to form a community they set down a constitution; a rule book of how the community would behave. The opening paragraph included the words that this community was:
“to sustain by the labour and gifts of love the pure Word and Sacraments as God’s only appointed means for saving the lost and for edifying His people; and to maintain a discipline doctrine, righteousness of life, and the peace and growth of the Church”.
The fore-fathers and mothers who wrote this statement of community purpose were themselves displaced persons. Some were descendants of the families from the Little Dutch Church –Germans who came to Halifax in the mid 1700s, and no longer had a church home. Others were displaced persons from Lunenburg County, come to the city for jobs. Yet others were men stationed here because of WWI. These people had a common need, a need to feel part of a community; a need to give and receive; a need to feel competent; a need to feel autonomous and authentic. Together these displaced persons formed a relationship based on a common need of relationship with God, which translated into a relationship with each other, that over the years grew into the community of today.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he recites a long list of points that make him, without a doubt, a member of the first century Jewish community. Paul belongs –he’s circumcised, of the tribe of Benjamin, parents were Hebrews, a Pharisee, a zealous upholder of the law- a fighter for the cause. But despite a “seeming to belong”, Paul is a displaced person. After the encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, a life altering God-experience, he no longer has a place in the world he knew and had dedicated his life to.
Paul’s credentials no longer matter, for they pale in comparison to having relationship –given through the death of Christ. It is the power of Christ’s love even to death and God’s power over death by resurrection that motivates Paul to press toward the ultimate goal –life everlasting and the fruition of God’s kingdom.
Paul has through relationship with God been changed and in changing become a catalyst for pulling together displaced persons who grow into Christ following communities. Displaced persons, those at odds with Rome, or the Synagogue, those who were sick, held different beliefs or practiced alternate ways, all were grafted into Christ the vine at baptism, nourished by bread and wine, shared in Christ’s suffering they knew the power of resurrection and lived it out in community.
You may have noticed in the past week, other churches in Halifax have advertised on their church signs that this is World Communion Sunday. This celebration is observed, on the first Sunday in Oct, by Christian denominations around the world to promote Christian unity and ecumenical cooperation. The tradition originated in the Shadyside Presbyterian Church, in Pittsburg in 1933. It was adopted throughout the US Presbyterian Church in 1936, and from there spread to other denominations and the World Council of Churches. By observing this celebration congregations are asked to think of Holy Communion in the context of the global community of faith; Christians in every culture break bread and pour the cup to remember and affirm Christ as the Head of the Church. We are reminded that they we belong; that we are part of the whole body of Christ; a vast community.
Recently I have been doing work on a school paper that outlines my strategic plan for ministry here at Resurrection. Readings have suggested that communities that last from generation to generation do so because there is a set of core values at work. These values do not change, although they might be expressed in new ways, the meaning and essence are the same. Resurrection’s core values are found in the stories of the displaced persons who sought to create a community of like-minded believers who worshiped in a Lutheran way.
Over the years many displaced persons have come through this home. Highlights include Norwegian sailors, WWII displaced persons from Europe: some of whom are still with us today; over the years the number of students come from all parts of the world to study in Halifax; those who have transferred here for internships or jobs; refugees from Ethiopia; and various other CFAs
But you know there is a part of each of us that is a displaced person: perhaps economically, socially, politically, in relation to orientation, morally, physically, mentally, educationally and so on.
In our world today, when we are about being rather than having, when we don’t conflate our wants and needs, when we focus on the need for community, for giving and receiving, for living authentically, for being useful –when we are about fundament human need; we are truly displaced persons. The world doesn’t follow the same ethic, a sense of faith directing ones’ actions is perplexing, offered compassion is not trusted as being free with no strings attached. As Jesus’ followers there is a need to come together in community to foster relationship with God and each other, in order to have the strength to return to the world where the tenants want more, to consume more, to build more, to control more.
Being displaced persons and being grafted into the vine of Christ, being a community here, sharing in communion with like-minded Jesus’ followers around the world – we understand the need to find the lost, to offer compassion, to invite others into community, to love the displaced that come through the door.
Although almost 100 years old the opening statement of the 1915 founding document rings true today: that we will be about
Sustaining labour and gifts of love
Word and Sacrament
Discipline doctrine
Righteousness of life
Peace and growth of the church
These purposes act like the Ten Commandments did for the Israelites when they were a gangly group of displaced persons, with no home. These core values are about relationship, our relationship with God and how that affects our relationship with each other and with a lost world.
Jesus asks the Pharisees, “have you read in scripture: ‘the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’”; Jesus is referring to himself. Jesus had a different relationship with God and thus with the people of his time. Jesus as a displaced person, who was at odds with the world around him. Jesus was compassionate to the core. Through death Jesus showed the path to resurrection -choosing to follow means bravely being a displaced person in the world, prepared to stand firm, prepared to die.
May we be displaced persons as Jesus was; at odds with the world; offering compassion, sharing community, welcoming the displaced, creating home; so as to further God’s movement toward perfect relationship –at homeness, at oneness.
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