It Is What It is, Until It Isn’t

Sermon

What a poignant question for today – the Sunday after a nationwide demonstration of resistance to evil and hate, a demonstration of love and compassion for each other, and a demonstration of faithfulness. Yet, I fear many people still rightfully wonder, “Would Jesus find faithfulness on earth?”

Kierkegaard says Jesus would have been turned away at the door.

James Cone says Jesus likely would have been lynched in America.

Two grim perspectives on this question – yet, famously, both remained steadfastly Christian: both theologians and philosophers, James Cone, a pastor. And both knew the answer to this question has always been “yes.”

Yes, Jesus would find faithfulness on earth.

And still, they’d say, Jesus would be turned away at the door of most churches, would still likely have been lynched in most cities in America, would most likely be deported or disappeared.

Because the people’s faithfulness has never been in question – whether it be to God, or to golden/orange idols, or to wealth, or to power, people will and have always been faithful to something.

What the question really asks, and why Cone is so sure of how Jesus would be treated in his time, is whether Jesus would find people’s faithfulness to God on earth.

What we see from demonstrations like yesterday, what we learn, is that the people’s faithfulness to God is not found wherever people just proclaim to believe in God.

People’s faithfulness to God is found in the people – in the people, like the widow today, who make it clear what their faithfulness calls them to do: persistently petition for justice.

Who came at the judge so hard that she forced him to confront some harsh realities about himself—does not fear God, does not respect people. Who wore out the judge by demanding justice over and over again, until she got it.

Her persistence should also not be seen in isolation – this is not entitlement or expectation, but the seeking of justice, the seeking of making right what is wrong, the evening of the playing field.

This parable is very clear on how and where people like Kiekegaard, Cone, Katie Cannon, and I find faithfulness on earth.
Faithfulness is found with the people who feel, experience, see, and know most clearly that the way of the kin-dom, of equity and justice, of love and peace, of everyone’s thriving and flourishing, of earth’s restoration and healing, is the only way toward peace.

Faithfulness is found with the people who live out this belief with daily intention, who see in their daily choices the tools and power to build the kin-dom, with those who persistently petition for equity and love and compassion and peace in everything that they do. Because to know peace, we must also know justice.

For many people, like the widow, it is easier to see her persistent petition as necessary; she is without – without community, without resources, and without any real human dignity. And so, of course, she would be persistent.

But for people like the young gentleman, sometimes for myself, sometimes for us in this community, it is harder to see that the persistent petition for justice is necessary – I am cozy in my apartment, I get to spend time with Biggie, I get to stay warm and dry.

The phrase of “it is what it is” – sure, it absolutely can be helpful when there are things we cannot change. But this attitude of “it is what it is” has overtaken not just for things we can’t change but for everything that’s not directly in front of us.

We see an unhoused person and know we can help them, and still we hold onto the idea that homelessness is what it is, racism is what it is, mass deportations and separations of families is what it is. Until it isn’t.

When it turns from homelessness and mental health issues to being evicted from my house because my housemates were stealing my money. When it turns from educational videos to the realities in front of you. It is what it is, until it isn’t.

I know that sometimes I’m also fearful for my life, fearful that someone is more likely to threaten me physically because I’m Asian, fearful that the many people in my family and friends who at one point in our lives would have been considered “undocumented” will be the next domino to go.

For any person whose heart aligns with God’s, whose faithfulness is to God, the persistent petition of justice will always be necessary – God’s justice, the kin-dom way of equity and love, is the only way of resolving this sense of deep cognitive dissonance.

Why we’re told to not lose heart is because apathy is the more immediate response to injustice when we are not directly affected by it.

But what this parable shows is that just because apathy is the more immediate response does not mean it is the better, or even easier, response. In fact, it’s worse and it’s harder.

I have been out by the ICE facilities a handful of evenings these past few weeks. The other night, a freshman in college came up to me to ask a question about how I felt about all of this going on. And he shared with me that he felt a little hopeless about it all – whether it would mean anything, whether it would change anything, and really questioning why it was that he was out there at all. He had gone to a fairly conservative high school, where mostly everyone was white and wealthy, and he was the only progressive—and he asked if I had any hope, considering I was out there with them.

I did not have to hesitate at all to tell him, absolutely. Absolutely you will hear me angry at the capital C Church, horrified by all the evil the Church has been a part of, but as angry and as horrified as I am, absolutely, I am just as hopeful, if not more, knowing that love does win.

So, I told him, “Yes, absolutely.” I’m here because you’re here, because people like you care enough about the basic human rights of others, about the protection of other’s people freedoms, that it brought you down here to risk your safety for others.

His action of being out there every night – being one of the first inflatable unicorns – is hopeful. I am here because it is fulfilling, because it is joyful, it is better and easier for me to be out there than not.

And because I was there, I get to share with him that the legacy he is a part of is also found on Multnomah and 16th every Saturday from 12 to 1 p.m., where music is enjoyed, cheers are shared, and fellowship is had. That his persistent petition is a part of the persistent petition of justice.

It’s why I am so hopeful, why I remain a Christian and faithful to the kin-dom – because throughout history, and throughout the world today, and what this community is a part of, is where faithfulness can be found, and what God will respond to.

Know that each of your voices, each of your persistent petitions, each of your daily choices and interactions, the choices you make, bear an incredible influence in the world. The call of faith is to believe, know, and live into the reality that God has created us to be good. It is how Christianity has survived, how people who look like me still find hope, why people who think like we do still congregate on Sundays, because there have always been people persistently petitioning for justice, who have not let “it is what it is” just be.

I will end with this quote by Margaret Mead that feels more relevant than ever for today’s scripture:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”