30 October 2011

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 46
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36

The people said to Jesus, “What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’? We are Americans and have never been slaves to anyone.”

Now, had I said that line in a congregation principally made up of Black people, there would have been a whole lot of ironic laughter going on, along with some mighty interesting responses being called out. But for those of us who are middle-class white people – we really are free, right? Let me tell you just how free I am. Most of you know how I make a whole lot of noise about materialism, consumerism, greed and all that sort of stuff. And I’m great at shooting off my mouth about how the rich are getting richer while the rest of us are either trickling down the tubes or scrambling like mad just to keep even. Well, let me tell you: I received my quarterly pension statement in the mail this past week. My retirement account took a big, big hit last quarter – it lost over one-eighth of its value. Another seven quarters, another year and nine months of that and my pension will be absolutely worthless. Something’s gotta change to make the economy get better. Of course the only way the economy is going to improve is if everybody goes out and buys, buys, buys, consumes, consumes, consumes, racks up those credit card debts, gets in hock up to their eyeballs, and spends their way to the poorhouse. You do know that consumer confidence is where it’s all at . . . Oh yeah, I’m not a slave to anything. It’s just that my way of life depends on other people buying all sorts of things they think they really, really need, but most likely really, really don’t.

Of course, I suppose I could leave here and go to another country if I think I’m in slavery to our consumerist way of life – I’ve had people suggest that to me. Sweden seems like a good choice. But of course, I would be fooling myself. You know the saying, “wherever you go, there you are”? No matter where I might go, I would still be in bondage to my turned-in-on-self self. I would still worry about – myself. And there would still be that internal voice – the voice that says, “I’ll never been as learnéd or as intelligent as I want to be. I’m no good. I’ll never be able to fix the all things that are broken – I’ll never be able to make a lasting difference in the world. I’ll never be good-looking enough, or strong enough, or talented enough. I’ll never be perfect enough. I’ll never get people to really listen to what I have to say. At least I know I’m smarter than others – I know how things ought to be done. Other people may believe all sorts of superstitious nonsense, but not I. (Notice how grammatically correct that last sentence was; would that other people could get it right. Ignoramuses.) But I’m not self-righteous or judgmental like other people are. I’m Lutheran; we do good works so that people will know we really care. And I’m certainly not like those . . . . fundamentalists . . . or those bankers . . . or those management types . . . or those Republicans . . . or those Democrats (depending on your point of view) . . . I’m not like those other gay people who spend all their time at the bars or the baths . . . and I’m certainly not like those bigoted boobs who’ve made Colorado Springs a hotbed of hypocrisy.” And, the voice just keeps on a-going. And that voice that focuses me and all of us in-upon-the-self and the self's needs, that voice is everywhere – if not inside of us, there are a host of other sources ready, willing, and able to orient our selves toward ourselves, to make us either individually or collectively needing to have our own needs met first and foremost, or to be number one, to be right, to be spiritual, to be self-actualized, to have our act together . . . and on and on it goes. No . . . we have never been slaves . . . . . yeah, right.

So – what’s a person to do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. (What? Did you think I was going to start spouting some self-help crap from the pulpit, or turning you on to some of pious, spiritual discipline that would make it all better?) Nope. There is nothing for any of us to do. That’s because it’s already been done . . . . Yesterday while I was in the depths of despair over the incoherent blithering I was seeing on my computer screen, I just happened to hear someone on National Public Radio interviewing Fats Domino. The interviewer said, “You have a lot of candles and statues of saints, and other religious art throughout your home. I’m assuming you’re Roman Catholic.” To which Fats Domino replied: “No, I’m Baptist. I used to be Catholic though. But I am baptized, so those labels, they don’t make no difference” . . . . So . . . what’s a body to do about being enslaved to the self? Well, I’ll modify my previous answer of nothing. There is one thing to do: remember that you are baptized!

In Holy Baptism, by the cosmos-creating utterance of God – you, I, all of us were put to death in Baptism – not symbolically, but in the reality of God most assuredly put to death because the only cure for our enslavement to ourselves is – death. In God’s time-out-of-time, at the font we were united to Christ, and in and with Christ – we all died. And – in and with Christ Crucified, on the Third Day we were made alive. Christ is risen! You are risen! Ding-dong, the old self is dead, and now you are free! And now, each of you lives in the world as Christ lived in the world – a person for others. And as St. Paul says – we are justified: Holy in God’s sight in every way, lovely in God’s eyes as Christ – not because of what we do or don’t do – but by faith in Christ – by our trust, that because of Christ, it is so.

But who has that kind of faith? You want the truth? Nobody. Not the Pope of Rome. Not Martin Luther. Certainly not I. You know what I love the most about the Lutheran Catechism? The explanation of the Third Article of the Baptismal Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him.” I believe that I cannot believe . . . . . which is precisely why I must be here . . . or, quite frankly, my despair would overwhelm me. I come here to hear that I cannot do anything to save even myself, let alone anyone else. I come here to be reminded as I pass that font, to be reminded as I trace upon myself the cross that someone else first traced upon me – I come here to be reminded that I have already been pronounced dead. Truly, dead. And I come here to be reminded, not by what I do, but by what is done to me in the liturgy, I come here to be reminded that I have risen with Christ – that my true life is not here, but hidden with Christ in God. And I come here to receive into my body Christ crucified and risen, not in the way that logic comprehends, but just the same to receive Christ whom God has promised is really, truly here, for me, in the Bread and Wine of the Lord’s Supper.

And so it is for you. You have come here not of your own free-will; rather, you have been brought here by the strange workings of the Holy Spirit. And I tell you: your old, addicted-to-self self is really and truly dead. And there are absolutely no religious, moral, or spiritual projects left for you to do, for you have already been raised from the dead, and you are alive in Christ, and now you walk the earth . . . as Christ, the person for others.

So when the day comes, either sooner or later, that this enslaving American Empire falls – as it surely shall – when the forces of the end or of anything of any time or any place come, “were they to take our house, Goods, honor, child, or spouse, Though life be wrenched away, They cannot win the day!” We are baptized, damn it!!! And Christ’s life is ours. We are . . . truly!. . . free!! Already and forever, and in the Strong Name of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.