Responsibility -PEnt 14A

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody were members of a group.

 There was an important job to do and Everybody was asked to do it.

 Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody would have done it, but Nobody did it.

 Somebody got angry because it was Everybody’s job.

 Everybody thought Anybody would do it, but Nobody realized that Anybody wouldn’t do it.

The past few weeks we have witnessed Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody risking their lives to save others. We have seen people using their own boats to rescue the stranded, people dropping whatever they were doing to volunteer at shelters, others offering their homes and resources. The best.

The past few weeks we have also witnessed Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody price gauging oil and water, looting property, and in the midst of stress and crisis pushing, shoving, even pulling guns. The worst.

In times like these -well at anytime- is there not a code of moral responsibility, social responsibility, legal responsibility, collective responsibility?

As human beings are we not bound by duty and obligation particularly at a time of chaos?

We are not Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, or Nobody.  We are Christians, believers.  We are children of God. People who have experienced God’s grace.  People who belong to a community.  We live in the light, wrapped in Jesus Christ. We have chosen to live intentionally loving God and loving neighbour.

As part of this community, God’s family, we have a response – a duty and an obligation- to address current crisis in the world. Yet, it is not just in crisis, but, in our everyday lives that because of our chosen commitments, beliefs, and belonging to Christian community we held to certain responsibilities.

Thankfully we are not left completely out on a limb to figure out what our responsibilities are. Our readings this morning are super focused on this very thing. Three ways of:  How to be responsible.

First - What we say.

Specifically, Ezekiel is “the mortal” God is giving instruction to in the Hebrew scripture reading. Ezekiel’s book, however, veers to the responsibility of individuals. This is different from past prophets who spoke to the people as a collective; as a whole, the people were asked to turn to God, or follow the law, or seek a Messiah.  Here the mortal (Ezekiel, or you, or me), is asked that upon hearing the Word of the Lord, we are to go give warning to others.  We are to verbally confront wicked ways.  We are to ask people to turn from actions that are not about loving God, loving neighbour.  We are not to sit back and be Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, or Nobody, assuming someone else will speak truth, requesting corrective behaviour of those acting inappropriately. 

I don’t have too much trouble standing here and making suggestions on how we should live our lives.  I don’t have too much trouble preaching how we should face the world. Speaking corrective truth, inside is very different from speaking it outside these walls.  For goodness sake, I have trouble telling the scary looking person whose dog poops on the church lawn, to clean it up --- easier to walk by, and ignore; clean it up later. Well what if the actions to correct were bigger than picking up dog poop?

Being responsible is hearing the Word of God and then giving it as a warning to others.

Asking, teaching, preaching, casually speaking, telling a person to turn from their ways.  Perhaps that means speaking to a person who spouts racism on Facebook, or tells demeaning jokes of women or those deemed the other; maybe it is inviting someone to church and community to help them turn from self-destructive tendencies; maybe it is addressing purposeless living and warning to re-direct and focus one’s life. Maybe it is as bold as to say, “you need God in your life.”

Second – Responsibility is: What we do.

Specific instruction comes to us in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Some of the passage is moral responsibility as written in the Law of Moses, and reminds the recipients of the letter of the legal responsibilities around the collective responsibility they made in their covenant with God.

There are legal consequences for adultery, murder, and stealing. Paul commends the people to remember their collective responsibility -duty and obligation- to be a people who is recognized for the love they have one for another and for God. Paul also explains responsibility in a moral sense where each person is to intentionally live honorably, and to avoid squandering time in frivolity, bickering, jealousy, or sleeping around. And as if this were all easy, responsibility for Paul includes making no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

If one looks up the word responsibility in the dictionary, one will find the self-explanatory synonyms: duty, obligation, liability.  One also finds the words, burden and restraint.  Paul is telling Christ followers that living as Christ’s light in the world means bearing burdens (of others and the world) and having restraint in action.  Being responsible, is choosing to consume less, waste less; be present more, sacrifice more.

Third – Responsibility is Community living.

Specifically, Jesus addresses the community of disciples, the church community, by highlighting through an example, what it means to be a responsible community of faith. Jesus draws out further synonyms, also found in the dictionary, for responsibility: authority, power, and trust.  Not necessarily words we would immediately think to interchange with responsibility. Authority, power, and trust. I read this week that:  “Responsibility for correction, discipline, and forgiveness belongs to the community.”(Augsburg -Sundays and Season 2017) And to practice these Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody would have to employ authority and trust.

This is Jesus’s comment on responsibility. I think we can understand the thought and authority in the system presented in the Gospel of Matthew.  If a sister or brother commits a wrong against you, go to that person, point out the fault.  This takes trust--- have a conversation, try to work it.  If you can not work it out, have another come with you, as extra ears, as a mediator, as support.  If the issue still can’t be resolved go before the church community – seeking resolve, resolution. And then, well, if they ignore the church treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. 

Perfect.  This sounds reasonable and responsible. Done.  After doing my do diligence, I can say good riddance to the one deemed troublesome.

 But, Jesus isn’t done, apparently there is more to responsibility…

As the phrase, “treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector,” sinks in; Jesus is not talking about treating them with the gut reaction that comes to mind, or as the society around us would…

As the phrase wiggles into our hearts there is ……an audible sigh….  a whispered, “damn.” At the realization that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. Responsibility for our neighbour is not finished, it is only beginning.

Because there is a little bit of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody in all of us, sections of the Bible have been dedicated specifically for those of us who find responsibility difficult. As children of the light, those who have put on Jesus Christ, we are encouraged to join our voices on earth; when we do God is in our midst.

And to address responsibility we have been given the words to say together; to pray collectively and words that we can pray in our own moral struggle to be responsible.

The section of Psalm 119 that we read this morning is really a Prayer for Responsibility.  The first line

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, is so important the Psalmist repeats it 8x, throughout the psalm. The word rendered “teach” has an idea behind it of throwing, casting, hurling; and once being taught with this onslaught of teaching, one turns and teaches – as if truth was being thrown, scattered, and planted.

Responsibility as a theme stretched through the Biblical narrative, and continues to be of vital importance for life today.  What does being a responsible human being mean?  In addition, what added responsibilities are there as those who profess to walk in Christ’s light? 

Responsibility is what we say – telling the wicked to turn from their ways; what we do- living the Law and embodying restraint; community living – where grace has us eat with tax collectors and sinners. Responsibility is never done, it is only beginning.

For courage to be responsible – for the direction we should go- we pray the words of the Psalmist:
Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes

    and I will observe it to the end.

 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
    and observe it with my whole heart.

 Lead me in the path of your commandments,
    for I delight in it.
Turn my heart to your decrees,
    and not to selfish gain.
Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;
    give me life in your ways.

Chase the Ace vs Joan Baez ---Pent 13A

You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.

Jesus is speaking to Peter.  Heaven forbid Jesus would be speaking to us.

Those who listened to the news this week, will have heard of a church in Gould, Newfoundland.  This parish started a lottery 10 months ago as a fundraiser. Raising money for the church cemetery, the church tower, the food bank, and for regular maintenance.   The lottery was all about money. And from what I could find on the Parish web-site, or not find in other ministries, it was all about money to keep the parish properties (expect for a little to support the food bank). The money was self-serving.  The wider community, many probably not thinking about it, were being asked to shoulder the cost of keeping the parish alive, because the people of the parish could or would no longer do it for themselves.

The popularity of Chase the Ace was huge. Over the 44 weeks the lottery ran, Chase the Ace attendance increased so much that security, traffic attendants, porta-potties and other logistics had to be put in place. This past week over 60,000 people descended on the town to be there to see, or be, the winners of the $2.6 million pot. 

60,000 people came to church, to the parish hall, with excitement and hope; and left never having heard the Gospel, or participating in God’s grace.  In fact, when reading the news, the only mention of God, was declared by the winner who said, “Oh my God, oh my God I can’t believe I won.”

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

A Lutheran Bishop who served in Alberta, continually told churches and stewardship conferences, that it only takes 10 tithers in a congregation for a congregation to have their needs met and to be able to offer good programs and do fantastic ministry in the community. It takes ten financially faithful people to allow a congregation to broaden their focus beyond themselves. They also provide a heart and share an attitude of thanksgiving and thanks living that rubs off on the people around them.

The church is to be about following Jesus example.  He tells the disciples that his labour (his work) is leading to his own suffering and death, and then life. Jesus is about to bear the cross on behalf of the whole world.

Bearing the cross of others, is not adding new ones or burdening others with false hope; bearing another’s cross is not a get rich quick scheme.  The cross is about hope that produces hope; sharing Good News that feeds the masses, opening up and outpouring grace to heal the broken hearted and a hurting world.

For those who want to save their life will lose it,

I wonder what would have happened in Gould, if people, or even a person, took on the responsibility of planning a large scale revival, a healing event, a community outreach program, a Gospel band tour; something as big as the lottery.  Would they have the gut to present it to the parish council? Would the council say it was too much work?  Would the same money used for the lottery event, be put up for security, parking attendants, porta-potties and directed to an actual ministry? My experience tells me that the ideas for Gospel events, would be put aside as pie-in-the-sky: too risky, too much money, too much trouble. 

This is one example where the church, Christians, us, have become a stumbling block to the message of Jesus and barriers to people from experiencing God’s grace, because we have set our mind not on divine things but on human things.

 and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

I met one of these people this week.  Not face to face, but, rather through the broadcast of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2017 Inductee Ceremony.

One of the inductees took the stage with a simple charismatic presence.  Her name, Joan Baez. Baez began as a folk singer in the 60s, singing  songs like “We Shall Over Come,” “We Shall Not Be Moved,” while standing beside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at his rallies and marches; inspiring a generation of song writers to speak to civil rights, human rights, and at anti-war demonstrations.  Her life’s work included continuing calls for justice and peace through Live Aid, Amnesty International, and the like.

At 76, she has not changed.  The Rolling Stone magazine wrote: Her induction speech was a chance for her to reiterate her lifelong commitment to political activism.  She said, "What has given my life deep meaning and unending pleasure has been to use my voice in the battle against injustice,"... And Baez was quick to remind listeners that this battle is ongoing. "Where empathy is failing, and sharing has been usurped by greed and the lust for power, let us double, triple and quadruple our own efforts to empathize and to give of our resources and ourselves," she continued. "Let us together repeal and replace brutality, and make compassion a priority. We the people must speak truth to power, and be ready to make sacrifices." 

To the mainstream she may not be remembered, perhaps not even by people of the 60s, other than those whom she mentored, spoke to, who’ve attended an event she was part of. People won’t remember the personal sacrifices she made – choices of putting her reputation on the line, her life in some cases; or holding back 60% of her taxes to protest the Vietnam War. Her voice, the Good News she proclaimed is still heard in the music that continues to be sung; living proclamation of the Gospel spread through following generations of musicians and activists. … and by those who singalong with the songs on the radio, or at a concert, and have a moment of hope for the future, a palpating of the heart to suggest a focus for one’s passion and life.

What will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

In her induction speech, Joan talked about the influence 60s folk music had on Rock and Roll.  She talked of starting her career in vinyl, moving to 8-track tapes, changing to recording on cassettes, to albums on CD, and now full circle back to vinyl ---- The story of her music has come full circle too.  The activism of the 60s, the protests, civil rights and human rights, participation in wars like Vietnam (but today in other places in the world) once again are the headlines of the news, in full colour; and once again the times require the same prophetic voice!  She was preaching from the story of her life, with no regrets, only a passion and a hope, that others will do the right thing --- bear the cross of others.  In this way individuals, churches, communities will not forfeit their life --- they will bring life.  In fact they will bring passion to life and 60,000 + people, hearts filled with hope, will flock to be part of it

Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

You can’t tell me  – well you could, but, I won’t believe you- that attending a lottery draw has more hope than standing in solidarity (bearing the cross) with our neighbours.  You can’t tell me that fundraising out in the world for internal purposes is as life giving as the passion of being a prophetic voice or the excitement of being in the crowd singing and demanding justice.  You can’t tell me that those 60,000 people who visited Gould are better off today than they were yesterday, save perhaps the winner.  But the thousands who heard Joan Baez’s induction speech – or better yet – the song she sung afterward sneaking in a line directed at Trump’s administration; cut to the heart, was a slap on the face, was pure Gospel – it is still affecting the hearers, days later.  People are googling it, reflecting on it, writing about it, preaching about it.

Her story is being shared, as an example of one, among many who has eyes set on a vision of world – hope for a world --- that is as the kingdom of God is described.

Jesus’s listeners were told that some would not taste death before seeing the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. In a round a bout way, sure in Jesus’s death and resurrection… but what of those who witnessed the kingdom before Good Friday and Easter; the blind who could see, the deaf who could hear, the lepers cleansed, prisoners set free; the poor, the oppressed, the forgotten, the sinner, given worth; those who experienced grace at the hand of God; is this not the coming of the kingdom?  Justice, hope, Good News for all people; in Jesus’s time, in Joan’s time, in our time. 

Get on with it. Move the stumbling blocks.  Stop setting your minds on human things. Focus on divine things, choosing to bear the cross – yours and that of your neighbor. Participate in the coming of the kingdom by being a prophetic voice, singing of justice, rallying for rights, being a purveyor of peace, labouring in love, and speaking to the powers that be with the very way you live your life ---- live TRUE hope, not wasting time and energy on false hope that does not last --- face the world, your neighbourhood, with a heart turned towards being in mission for others.  

And then watch… imagine ….

60,000 people come to church, to the parish hall, with excitement and hope; out of anticipation from what God is doing and has yet to do.  And having heard the Gospel, and participated in God’s grace, go back out and share the news, the mention God over and over, “Oh my God, oh my God, I have experience God --- come and see.”

That’s where I place my money.  That is where I place my heart. Labouring in love so all may see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.