Sunshine Cathedral Sermons

Preached by the Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, December 6, 2009.

Today, the second Sunday in Advent we light the candle of Peace, as we anticipate the birth of One who was called The Prince of Peace, Jesus, who announced and ushered in a realm of peace.

We need peace today, as much, if not more than we did 2000 years ago. Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh says that life is simultaneously dreadful and wonderful, which is why we need peace.

In her Advent Meditation, Rev. Elder Darlene Garner wrote this week about her own struggles with peace, with the dreadfulness and wonderfulness of life. Recently, she moved from Guadalajara , Mexico , with 100 boxes to be unpacked. If you know Darlene, you know she can’t stand disorder of any kind. In trying to rush through unpacking, she threw out her back. Finally, she had to surrender to the chaos, and let go. When she did, peace came to her, as a gift. She spoke about  allowing God to lead in her in the dance again. Her back is healing.

We’ve all had experiences like that, of too many boxes that disturb our peace. The only way back to peace is to surrender.

Living in peace is a choice and  a discipline. It takes commitment. It is said that peace is not just a matter of how nations get along, but how we answer the phone. We’ve all answered the phone from a place of peace, and from a place of no peace at all. And, we’ve talked to people at the other end whose violence on the phone reached through and grabbed us.

The Biblical concept of peace is more than the absence of conflict or war – it is a state of well-being, individually and collectively, of righteousness and justice, of wholeness and harmony. Shalom. It is so easy to fall out of “shalom.”

This week, the President of the US unveiled his strategy for finishing a war none of us like, by first stepping up our involvement. This was a week I was particularly glad not to be President! Yet another war that seemed so easy to get into, that we do not know how to get out of and save face. Eight years into a war, we are really just now getting a handle about what we really think we are doing there. Maybe.

The good thing is that there is deep, healthy skepticism, even about   this strategy, and the suspicion that things will not necessarily wrap up as quickly or neatly as we are being told. We are living in a century in which war and “terror” are becoming more and more complicated, and is less and less effective. And a time when our trust and confidence in government is also challenged.

War as we have known it is becoming obsolete. We are being forced to imagine another way, or perish.

Peace is no longer the idealistic fantasy of those who are naïve, or afraid to get their hands dirty. (I am old enough to remember being called “peace-niks!”) Peace has become the only sane, practical, option — the realistic and economical choice.

In a century in which the US ’s superpower status seems to be a little shakey, it is hard to imagine or trust that the way to prosperity and to be a leader in the world is by fostering peace, but it is. Getting drawn into costly, dispiriting wars will not save us or the planet. No war is inevitable, and we cannot shoot from the hip and ask questions later. Those days are gone. The tedious work of diplomacy, negotiation, patient shaping of the geo-political milieu according to emerging values,  is the unenviable task of leadership in today’s world.

At this season, when we sing about peace on earth, the world is as violent as ever. Our friends in Jamaica still suffer lethal homophobic violence. Our wonderful church community there, now celebrating their third anniversary is still often under siege.

If you have been listening to my favorite news commentator, Rachel Maddow, the lgbt community in Uganda is facing draconian legislation that would subject lgbt people and their supporters to imprisonment and the death penalty. People in our country think it is appropriate to vote our equal rights, and to deny marriage equality to same gender couples. An equal rights bill is stalled in Congress once again. Religious fundamentalism creates the conditions that support violence in our schools and streets.

So, what are we to do?

As Elder Darlene discovered again, peace is an inside job. Mary learned this that fateful day the angel announced to her that she was to have the awesome responsibility of carrying the Prince of Peace in her womb, and in her heart. Suddenly, she was not the center of her own life anymore.

Isn’t that what having a spiritual life, a relationship with God really means? We are not the center of the Universe, thank God, or even of our own lives. We are invited to make peace, and God, the center, around which our lives and communities can be built.

What if we were pregnant with hope, peace, joy and love?

You know, Sunshine Cathedral, that’s how you feel to me. You re-built this sanctuary, not so you could be the center, but so that you could give the center away to God, to use to bless, uplift, encourage, reach out to all kinds of people who may never have considered that they need a spiritual life.

When one of my dearest friends, Terri, was pregnant, at age 40, she was a little nervous. She had severe asthma, and some other health challenges. But, as she became pregnant, she was one of those women who really did glow. All the extra hormones cured her asthma, boosted her immune system, and made her feel terrific. The life that she was carrying, carried her all the way.

This was the secret Mary had to learn. When we open our center, our body, mind and spirit to the Creator, we become healthy and whole. It is the secret every pastor and every church has to learn as well.

Mary was startled and disturbed by an angel saying impossible things, that she could never have imagined. As she surrendered to what she could only believe was God, peace began to grow in her. Her life was centered not on herself, but on God-with-her.

I think, Sunshine Cathedral MCC, that you are ready for an amazing time of growth and deepening of your ministry, of God-with-you; deepening your impact on this community, and on the world. As you center not on yourself, but on the needs of the community around you, the One who called you in the first place, is inviting you to a new dance.

There is no peace without justice, or, righteousness. Peace without justice is not peace. It may be a truce, but it is not peace. Injustice itself is a form of violence. Poverty is violence. Lack of adequate medical care is a form of violence. Addiction causes violence to the mind, body, spirit, and to relationships. If we want to bring peace, we have to pay attention to justice, we have to help people heal from the causes and effects of violence. Building schools and clinics, not bombs, will bring peace. Helping people access the means to support themselves, in dignity will bring peace.

The earth itself cries out for justice. Too long we have allowed the earth to be abused, and until we treat the earth like our home, and not our garbage dump, we will not have peace.

But,  I want to say a word of hope today. There are more peacemakers than ever in the history of the world. Every year, more people and organizations than you can imagine, work around the clock for peace and justice. Copenhagen , which they are calling “Hopenhagen” will happen this week, as the world community gathers to focus on global warming. More money is spent on studying and making peace, or fighting poverty, on education for those have not had access, on treatment for HIV/AIDS.

Young people, in unprecedented numbers, are looking to spend their lives working and volunteering for peace and justice. If we want to attract a new generation of spiritual seekers and activists to MCC, we have to follow their lead, and care about what they care about. They care about peace, and justice, and the future of our planet!

MCC around the globe is partnering with those who risk themselves for peace and justice. They are our community too. When we began our journey with you in Jamaica , our partner was a secular group human rights group. Initially, they were skeptical about a religious organization that wanted to partner with them and the lgbt community in Jamaica . But, because of what you have done with our friends in Jamaica , all that has changed. Today, when this human rights organization goes to a dangerous place to investigate the suffering and status of lgbt people, sometimes, these non-religious people call us to ask for prayers! They have come to value us as partners in making peace and justice.

Sunshine Cathedral MCC, I invite you to make three commitments:

1)      Continue to become a place, a center, that invites people to do the inside work of peace. Until we are in right relationship with ourselves, God and others, we are not at peace. Model that, teach it, help people find it. It is your core vocation, our core vocation. It is not enough to say that it’s OK to be gay. How are our people becoming equipped to follow Christ in a complicated world? To be bearers of peace and light?

2)      Teach and live the connections of peace and justice. As you are a force for justice in your community, you create the conditions for peace, right here in Ft. Lauderdale and southeastern Florida . Homophobia, racism, sexism poverty are all huge problems of justice here. Don’t let the religious right steal Jesus. Help people connect Jesus and his message to the 21^st century world we live in.  Help people who are queasy about religion see a true alternative path in you!

3)      We need your leadership, in MCC globally. The more you raise the bar, the roof, the more you challenge us to grow into the denomination and movement that God is calling us to be. Your vocation to connect the arts and spirituality is exactly where MCC needs to be, not only here, but in so many places. Art is a powerful medium for peace and justice. As you make room for that, you will attract a whole new generation of people who need a community like yours. Be bold, be creative.

Everything that is came to be because someone imagined it first. God imagined creation, and us. Made in the “image” of God, we imagine change and new realities.

Righteous peace will not happen unless we begin to imagine it. Imagine marriage equality Alabama or Florida – because, it will happen! Imagine conservative religious leaders repenting for homophobia, — it will happen! Imagine an end to an epidemic of bullying of kids who are different for any reasons – it will happen! Imagine peace for Israel and a Palestinian state – it will happen! Imagine millions of new, green jobs – it will happen! Imagine a Jamaica where it is safe to have gay pride – it will happen! Imagine the Pope (ok maybe not this one) opening the doors to married and women priests, and accepting that lgbt people are part of God’s wonderful, diverse creation – because it will happen! Imagine Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church inviting Sunshine Cathedral MCC’s choir and the wind ensemble to offer a Christmas concert – well, maybe not this year! But it could happen!!

May God bless you in this season, and as you greet the new year with imagination, courage, joy and a commitment to peace.

Amen