First Presbyterian Church of Willmar
January 6, 2013
Sermon
Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
“Yes! Them Too!”
It’s funny where your mind can take you. Maybe it happens more and more as I get
older. Isaiah talks about all the world
shall someday come to the Lord. The
Gospel lesson tells us about people who came from very far off - not
Jews – who came to pay homage to the new born child who fulfilled an ancient
Jewish prophecy. And Paul talks about
the fact that the Gospel demands that we carry the message of Christ’s
boundless riches to everyone who will listen, regardless of race or
nationality.
One of my first thoughts was the title of this sermon: “Yes! Them too.”
But the more I thought about it I was carried back into the
ancient wisdom of a seer who wrote during the 20th Century. Back in 1952, speaking about the voice of the
oracle POGO, Walt Kelly wrote:
“...Specializations and markings of
individuals everywhere abound in such profusion that major idiosyncrasies can
be properly ascribed to the mass. Traces of nobility, gentleness and
courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend.
So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate
that in the clumsy hands of the cartoonist all traits become ridiculous,
leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to
join battle.
There is no need to sally forth, for
it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough,
always close at hand. Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small
flags waving and tiny blasts of tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not
only may he be ours, he may be us.”
That’s from an introduction to The Pogo Papers and Kelly was reacting – in part – to the insanity
of McCarthyism and the lack of public outcry.
He added: “In the time of Joseph
McCarthyism, celebrated in the Pogo strip by a character named Simple J. Malarkey,
I attempted to explain each individual is wholly involved in the democratic
process, work at it or no. The results of the process fall on the
head of the public and he who is recalcitrant or procrastinates in raising his
voice can blame no one but himself.”
Because we sometimes claim to have difficulty understanding
the complexities of our oracles – including Scripture – Pogo simplified it for
us on the first Earth Day back in 1970 by saying simply: “We have met the enemy
and he is us.”
Some of you may be saying: “Where is he going with
this?” Or some of you may be saying, “He
has really gone around the bend this time!”
One way to interpret this morning’s Scripture lessons might
be to say: “We have an obligation to
take the Gospel to all those unsaved heathens in the world.” I’m sure that a good number of sermons have
been – in one way or another – be built
around that theme. Don’t get me
wrong: it’s both a noble thought and a
noble undertaking.
But for some reason, Pogo jumped into my head when I read
these verses. Some of the people in
Jesus’ time were shocked at the idea of extending the good news of Christ
beyond the very small community that rooted its relationship to God in the
promises made to Abraham. To those
people, “Yes! Them too,” would have been shocking. And it was.
And then the light of the oracle lit up my feeble mind. We are “them.” And it’s not that we were “them” and now we aren’t those outsiders any
longer. We are still “them.” As the oracle said 60 years ago: “Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage
persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too,
do those characteristics which are ugly.”
As long as we are human we shall be “them.”
Our friend Martin Luther always had an earthy tone to his
metaphors. Almost 600 years ago Brother
Martin said that if you aren’t sure whether or not you are a sinner, one of
“them,” then take your thumb and forefinger, place them on your chest and pinch,
and IF – IF – perchance you feel flesh, then you are a sinner. I would add, if – like me – you feel flesh
then you are one of “them.”
Brothers and sisters here in front of me this morning is the
table prepared by our Lord. Christ knows
that we are “them.” We are the
outsiders, the aliens, the dispossessed, the poor, the all-too rich, the liars,
the cheats, the sinners. We are
“them.” And in His love He calls all of
us – “them” – to join Him at the banquet He has prepared for us.
In the words of invitation we say, “Come not because you are fulfilled, but because
in your emptiness you stand in need of God’s mercy and
assurance.” That’s not a description of
a small group of us. If you pinch
yourself and feel that flesh then like all of us you too “stand in need of
God’s mercy and assurance.”
Sometimes
in reading Scripture or even just sitting in church we can become so convinced
that we are no longer “them.” That we
have some noble obligation to save “them.”
Christ
calls us to His banquet table. He
doesn’t call us because He likes our clothes, our cars, our style, our ethnic
heritage. Africans, Asians, Russians, Swedes, Native Americans, Germans, even
the Irish – like me – are all invited. He calls us because in His wisdom He
knows that we need His love and His healing.
He
calls us still because He recognizes that we are still “them.” And unless we are willing to acknowledge that
we are “them” too; unless we acknowledge that we sit in the equality of human
sinfulness with all those around the world who sit at Christ’s table; unless we
recognize that we are part of a humanity in need of God’s love and forgiveness –
especially God’s forgiveness – then we have no place at His table for we
thereby have judged ourselves.
The
enemy is always close at hand. The enemy
is always us. “There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things
which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand.”
When
you join together in the meal that Christ has prepared for us remember who we
are. Remember our need for what Christ
offers to us. Remember the price He has
paid to redeem each of us even as we remain “them.” Our mission is to tell everyone who will
listen the good news that we, even we – united as a part of “them” – have been
invited to sit with Christ in joy and in glory, sharing His love and gratefully
remembering that we are “them.” And He
loves us still. Amen.
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