Prophetic Voice and Radical Hospitality

Lent 5 message given at
Trinity Episcopal Church in Fillmore, CA

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Romans 8:6-11

John 11:1-45

Psalm 130

It has been a joy for me to enter into the life and vision of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who recognize the importance of our campus ministry’s presence at the university as a prophetic voice for change and a welcoming space of hope.

In these two veins, prophetic voice and welcoming space, we are given the opportunity to share God’s good news of love and redemption to both our student group and to the people we come across on campus everyday. This morning’s epistle is a reminder of the challenges that each of us face as we participate in the daily movement of life and the need for a voice of hope and a space of hospitality.

When we entered this season of Lent, the readings brought us in touch with our humanity, a humanity and flesh that hungers. In the creation narrative we saw this hunger turn away from God to fill a void and towards seeking to be fed through knowledge of power, self-trust, control, and survival. In his book For the Life of the World, Alexander Schmemann classifies this shift as disordered hunger or disordered love. Rather than hungering or loving after God, we seek fulfillment elsewhere.

We again meet humanity’s disordered hunger and love for power, in the form of the devil, when Christ is tempted in the desert. Here Jesus resists the temptation to seize power and “save the world” outside of the perfectly ordered love of God. A love, which, Paul reminds us in Romans chapter eight comes from the Spirit of Christ. One that is life and peace; a Spirit that is restorative, that reorders our hunger, and reflects Christ’s life of servitude and compassion.

Each Sunday this Lent, we have journeyed with the gospel passages through Christ’s ministry on Earth. All of these narratives challenging conventional notions of power, exclusion, and holiness. All of these narratives calling us to no longer hunger for the dysfunction of this world, but to allow our flesh to be filled and satisfied by God’s spirit. As ministers of this gospel message, our work at the Abundant Table campus ministry is to be the hands and feet of Christ. To model the example Christ gives in his journey from the desert to the cross and beyond.

Today’s Old Testament reading and gospel draw our attention to two primary ways in which we live out Christ’s life in our own. In Ezekiel God’s Spirit leads the prophet to a valley filled with bones. Dry bones; bones without flesh and therefore without life. While Ezekiel acknowledges that only God knows whether “these bones can live,” God still commands the prophet to “prophesy to these bones,” “to say to them – you shall live.” Ezekiel must share a prophetic voice of change, a change from death to life. God shares with Ezekiel that these bones symbolize the “whole house of Israel”. It is important to note that the promise of life is not just for one of the houses of Israel, but its entirety.

Up to this point in the scriptures the Israelites were outcasts; a people divided by lusts for power and an economy of oppression, whether brought upon them by outside nations or perpetuated internally by their own disordered hunger. God promises to renew and restore them, to breathe into Israel a radical hospitality that welcomes them into right relationship with God and to each other.

So, now, jumping into the Gospel of John, we come across another narrative, with a very similar pattern. It has been four days since Lazarus was laid in the tomb; dead, a man on his way to becoming dry bones. Risking his life in returning to the town of Lazarus’ burial, Jesus arrives to a crowd of mourners, skeptics, and a handful of the hopeful. Deeply moved by the death of Lazarus, the unbelief of many followers, and the knowledge that the following display of power will place him in opposition to the ruling elite of his day, Jesus wept. And then…Jesus spoke. Like in Ezekiel, Christ called out to the dry bones in the tomb when he called “Lazarus, come out!” Once again, we see a prophetic voice of change call to the dead, that life may be breathed into them.

This call is an invitation into a welcoming space of hope. How much more radical can hospitality get, then to invite the dead, back into the land of the living. If we think about it, those who are dead lay in the ultimate exile and exclusion. In the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus reminds us of the power of hospitality, and that it is in his Spirit of life and peace, can our flesh truly live.

While in Campus ministry, we do not find ourselves resurrecting the dead, we constantly come across opportunities for radical hospitality, to provide a welcoming space of hope. Many of the students on our campus face some level of exclusion and in that a loss of life. Just this pass week I had a conversation with a young woman who, because of her situation in life, felt very alone and often misunderstood by her peers. She is someone who would be considered at the very margins of society. Although a hard worker, a visionary, mature and motivated, this young woman is excluded from many tables that our society has created for people to “eat at” (you’ve heard the saying, “a seat at the table”). My hope is that the Abundant Table can be a safe and welcoming place for everyone, especially for this young woman. It is in such a welcoming that hope emerges, a hope that one day we will all live in wholeness. The story of this young woman is one of many that have crossed our paths, and one of many that we have yet to encounter.

Just as in last week’s gospel, where Jesus sought out the blind man whom he healed, but whom the religious authorities rejected, we are to follow Christ and seek out those who are excluded. To the campus we desire to be a prophetic voice of change that signals a welcoming community of hope. A community with an Abundant Table for all, where a hunger for God leads to reconciliation, redemption, peace and justice.

Into the Desert

As we enter into the season of Lent, I hope this becomes a time in which we "re-claim" and "re-imagine" the depth and richness of our spiritual traditions. While, many of us recognize Lent to be a period of fasting and reflection, there is a profound challenge that these disciplines call us into.

During Jesus' 40 days in the desert, he was challenged to overcome emptiness, loneliness, a tired body, a weary soul. It was in this part of his journey that Christ encountered Satan, the face of disordered power, greed, hunger, and desire; it was in this time of fasting that Jesus was renewed in his innermost being and called to move beyond "worldly" ways of making change and taking power and into God's work of reconciliation with humanity.

For those of us who consider ourselves followers of Christ, it is here in the desert and in the fasting that we are moved beyond ourselves. Like Jesus, we are called out of the desert and into the ministry of reconciliation. What is fasting if it does not lead to right relationship (righteousness and justice) with God and with the world? Isaiah 58:6 (click on the link for the full passage) reminds us of this call to justice:

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?"

However, let's remember that we are not called to work in vain. Nor are we a people without hope. As, Isaiah goes on to write:

8 "Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."

One way, we here at The Abundant Table are hoping to enter more fully into God's call to fasting this Lent is through the Solidarity Fast with Los Angeles Faith/Activism Collective and other college campuses around Southern California. In focusing on supporting immigrant families of Los Angeles and Ventura County, remembering our own migration story, and reclaiming the spiritual tradition of fasting, we seek to commit ourselves to the work of the Church that does not end at Easter, but continues in Christ's victory over the grave and in the Hope of a future where "...all ate and were satisfied."

Liturgy and the Abundant Table

Epiphany 3A
Isaiah 9:1-4
Matthew 4:12-23

I recently started receiving a word of the day e-mail from dictionary.com. My roommates told me it is the best way to improve one’s vocabulary as a preparation for the GRE grammar section. While I really enjoying learning new words and their definitions, what I find most fascinating in these e-mails is that they include the etymology or origin of each of the words. Whether it is Latin, French, old or middle English, I begin to see how and why different words have become part of our lingo. For example, yesterday’s word was “caterwaul,” the word for loud noises or to make a harsh cry. Its origin comes from the Middle English caterwawen, "to cry as a cat.” Makes sense right?

As I began preparing for today’s lesson, etymology was on my mind. My thoughts were pulled back to a time when I read about the practice of “liturgy” its word origin. Interestingly, the word liturgy has its origin in the Greek word leitourgia (λειτουργια ), which is translated to, or understood in that time as, – public work or duty - work of the people. When I first read this, I was struck at the implications it had for my participation in Christian worship. So often I want to relegate the sacred and the spiritual to a particular service, location, or activity, but as I am learning this year, God’s sacramental work extends beyond this.

When we look at the gospel reading for today, we see Jesus at the initial stages of his public ministry. He is beginning his “liturgy” or work of the people. It is not something Christ chooses to do alone, but is an act in which he invites or rather calls Peter, Andrew, James and John into. What is it that Jesus calls the disciples to? What was the liturgy he preformed?

In verse 17 the author of Matthew writes, “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” In verse 23 it is written that “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” Well…that all sounds nice and religious right. But really…what was the liturgy that Christ and his disciples were beginning to perform? Repentance? The kingdom of heaven? The good news of the kingdom? These too must have been words with an origin, with a tangible expression.

Lucky for us, the folks who put this particular lectionary reading together probably thought the same thing. As you may have noticed earlier, part of what we see referenced in the first part of the Gospel reading comes from the words of today’s OT reading out of Isaiah. In Isaiah we read words of hope and salvation to “those who were in aguish.” This passage was written during a time when Israel’s territories were occupied by a foreign and oppressive people group. It was written to God’s people who were experiencing great injustices, as well as falling into the same patterns as their oppressors. Isaiah shares of a coming light, a coming salvation in which the “yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor” will be broken.

As we see in today’s Gospel, Matthew writes that Jesus is the fulfillment of what was “spoken through the prophet Isaiah.” Jesus is the “light [that] has dawned.” This is the “coming” that will break the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. This is the good news of the kingdom.

When Christ inaugurated his ministry as told in Luke, he read another passage from Isaiah, a passage proclaiming:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Again…the good news of the kingdom, of Christ’s beloved community. This is what Jesus calls the disciples to. This is his liturgy.

John Howard Yoder explains in his book The Politics of Jesus, that “Jesus’ concept of the coming kingdom was borrowed extensively from the prophetic understanding of the jubilee year,” (a topic which we will delve into later this semester). Its basic premise is a redistribution of resources, a return to balance, or as expressed in Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000… “all ate and were satisfied.” It is through this act of liturgy that Christ moves in ways that present an alternative to the socio-political structures that are oppressing and starving the world. Through the life of Christ, God offers us a new paradigm of living and moving that counters the corrupted structures evolving from humanity’s disordered hunger. Yes we are a hungry people. We hunger for power, for prestige, for longevity, so often for a life that is not wrapped up in God’s love and reconciliation.

Such reconciliation had a place throughout the Old Testament in the commands of God and in the prophets. The proclaimed year of jubilee called for right relationship within the Israelite nation, so that all members of society found themselves provided for, as well as gave rest to the land. We see here that Christ does not call only for personal repentance, reconciliation and salvation but the entrance of a new community committed to living in the jubilee through a life of love and sacrifice to the other (the outcast, the marginalized, the lonely, the hungry, each of us on this planet). William Cavanaugh, in his book Torture and the Eucharist, writes that the church “can never be restricted to a sphere of the personal and the spiritual because human life is social and the religious lives of people are interwoven with the political, economic, and cultural processes of society.”

It is in this conversation, that I am beginning to see how our liturgical work on Sundays, the Eucharistic act we perform during each service, is a cyclical and expanding movement, one that goes beyond the confines of our Malibu Hall 120. In order for me to fully participate in the Eucharist, I must become the bread and the wine in my everyday encounters. It is that voice in Isaiah and in the gospels that proclaims the hope of salvation that God in Christ brings.

Every Sunday we are reminded of a table that is full. A table that is full of life, full of God’s grace, full of the body of Christ and full of the work of the church. It is not just that we have an abundant table before us, but that we are the abundant table. We too are the bread for the world, for we are the hands and feet of Christ. As the semester continues we will engage topics both overtly religious and not so religious. We will work together to try and understand what it means for us to be the church, followers of Christ, a people of the resurrection and coming kingdom of God. It is we who exist in the mystery of God’s presence on earth, for as we live as the church/as Christians, we know that we live in God’s grace and victory over the grave and can proclaim God’s Jubilee and reconciliation boldly.

Namesake - -

Below is an essay I found by Ched Meyers that has a title similar to the name of this blog. While I had not seen this essay before I chose the name for my blog, the content it holds reflects the churnings in my mind that led to "...and they all ate and were satisfied." That said...I feel sharing this article is quite appropriate for this first post.

Enjoy! --

http://bcm-net.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/All%20Ate%20and%20Were%20Satisfied.pdf