Prop 28c.07                                                      November 18, 2007

Our lessons are about times of crisis and suffering.
We call those times Tribulation

        – which includes but is not limited to
               the ordeal before the final coming
                        of God’s Kingdom.

The Cosmic Tribulation is the end of this physical world.
It will eventually happen – probably not right away

        – but eventually it will happen.
If we don’t wreck the earth first,
        the sun will eventually go nova
                and that will be it for the earth.

But we don’t have to wait for that.
Today’s text says what we already know.

Long before the Cosmic Tribulation
       there are our Personal Tribulations, our personal crises

       – those times when our way of being
                in the world is jeopardized or lost.
A serious illness, the loss of our career,
       financial ruin, the death of a loved one,
                or the failure of a marriage

       – such things feel like the end of our personal world.

Today’s Scripture lessons are not threats.
Contrary to the dispensationalist clap trap,
        God does not send tribulations to punish us.
Tribulations are not God’s doing; neither are they God’s will.
The Bible doesn’t explain why they happen.

The Christian tradition has no one simple explanation
        for why life sometimes falls apart.
That’s just how it is.
The first two noble truths of Buddhism say the same thing

        – life falls apart and we suffer as a result.
Buddhism doesn’t explain it either.
We just start here, knowing this to be the case.

The first question is what is God going to do about it?
The second question is what are we going to do about it?
Malachi gives us the answer about God:

        “The sun of righteousness will arise with healing in its wings.”
And if we read on further in our Gospel lesson from Luke,

        “At that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud
        with power and great glory. . . .
        Stand up, and lift up your heads,
        because your redemption is drawing near.”

The basic gospel message,
        is that Christ shows up for our tribulations.
And if we want to be Christ-like,
        if we want to be the Church, the Body of Christ,
        the on-going Incarnation,
        if we want to carry out the gospel mission,
                we show up for each other.

Fr. Bede Griffiths, a Roman Catholic priest and author,
        said something Christians need to take to heart
        if we are going to be even relevant to human concerns.
Fr. Bede Griffiths said,

        “Jesus’ beginning point is not sin. It’s suffering.”//

So much old style Christianity,
        both Catholic and revivalist,
                is obsessed with guilt.
But guilt is just one of the many forms of suffering
        and it isn’t always the one on the front burner.
I once heard someone speaking to a group of folks
        struggling to survive the burdens of AIDS, poverty,
                and in some cases homelessness.
They had gathered to pray for each other.

But he told them their real problem was sin.
What they needed healing of was their sin.
And the cure for that is Jesus,
        so if they didn’t know Jesus,
                they needed to correct that.

Does that make the least bit of sense?
Suppose we go to Haiti where the hurricane
        has washed away the crops and livestock,
        and flooded out people’s homes,
and tell them their real problem is sin.
Pay no attention to the hunger in your belly;
        let’s talk about your sin.
That’s what Jesus is interested in

        – not your dying child but your moral ledger.

It’s like going to a doctor for your broken leg,
        but and the doctor removes your tonsils,
                  because he’s an ENT not an orthopedic surgeon.
Such a person would be a poor excuse for a doctor.
And if Christ were the way that man described him,
        he would be a poor excuse for a Savior.

God cares about people – and God heals suffering --
        the suffering we actually have,
        not the suffering someone else says we ought to have.

In the New Testament, Jesus was concerned
        about the poor and those who mourn.
He had good news for the prisoners and the oppressed.

So if we see a tribulation

        – be it a Hurricane in Haiti, an AIDS epidemic in Africa,
             a broken marriage in North Macon, or children running loose
                in the Peach Orchard –
        if we see a Tribulation or suffering, Jesus is there.
And if we are going to bring the Christ light
        to the people Jesus loves, we need to be there too.

Now the question is how do we go about doing that?
Is it by preaching or by social work?
Do we come with a spiritual agenda of prayer
        or a secular agenda of economic development,
                psychotherapy, a medical clinic or whatever?
How do we go about the mission?
How do we do Christian ministry?

The answer is absolutely simple.
It isn’t easy, but it is perfectly simple.
We just show up.

Back during the Cambodian civil war,
        Peaceworker Rabia Elizabeth Roberts
        offered her assistance to the Buddhist monk,
        Maha Ghosananda who was helping the Cambodians
                 to rebuild their lives.
She asked the basic question we all must ask,

        “How best can we serve our world?”
His answer matched the simplicity of her question:

        “First, you must show up.
        Be present to the suffering.
        Ask questions. Listen. . . . Right action will arise from this.”

This is what it says in today’s Gospel lesson.
Each tribulation – whether it is our own crisis
        or we are trying to show up for someone else

        – each tribulation is a kind of a trial.
And the Scripture tells us about trials.
“Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance;
        for I will give you words and wisdom . . . .”//

In the face of tribulations,
        be they our own or someone else’s,
                we are apt to do one of two things:
First we may duck out, skip out, go AWOL,
        because we don’t know what to do or say.
Or just as bad – we arrive on the scene
        with a blue print for change, a prescription,
        and a packet of proverbs like Job’s comforters.
We fit the square peg of real griefs
        into the round hole of some life manual
        by Rick Warren, James Dobson, or Dr. Phil.

Jesus says, don’t do either one of these things.
Don’t go AWOlL,
        and don’t march in with the answers.
Just show up with your eyes, your ears, and your heart open.

When Rabia Elizabeth Roberts led a mercy mission
        to Burma, she asked her simple question in a local way.
She asked a village elder, “What can we do for you?”
The old Burmese man answered,

        “We want our story heard.”//

She had expected a request for food, money, or supplies.
But the Burmese people needed something more urgently.
They needed a human witness to their suffering.
Roberts writes:

        “Each year I experience greater humility
        in the face of all I do not know.
        I do not try to “fix” those I encounter
        or persuade them to be different.
        I listen. Sometimes that is all I have to offer

        – simply a person willing to bear witness
               to someone else’s reality.”

If we practice this,
        if we make a discipline of being present for other people
                 and letting them be,
       we will at a minimum do less harm in the world.

But it may be better than that.
If we learn to just sit in the presence
       of someone else’s tribulation,
       to show up for trial humbly and undefended,
                then we may learn to show up
       for our own lives in the same way.
We may become faithful, non-aggressive participants
       in the moments of our own experience.

And when we do that,
       when we sit still,
       we will notice another presence in the room.
We will see,

       “The sun of righteousness will arise
                 with healing in its wings.”

                                                   Amen.