Heaven and Earth

Sermon

This week I read an essay about COVID’s destruction of so many of our systems and foundations and what that destruction has uncovered. I found it fascinating—not only in the author’s observations but also in the metaphor it provided. Destruction is painful and traumatic, and yet it might enable us to see what we have not seen before.

The metaphor of what destruction might unearth may help us with today’s text from the Letter of James. Remember that James is writing to a community of Jesus followers—he is not offering moral advice for the general public but is offering wisdom tied to Jesus for the communities that gather in his name.

In a way, we could say that James digs through the destruction caused by war and murder and conflict, and he unearths what is at the core of all of that: envy. He observes that envy—wanting what someone else has, coveting your neighbor’s whatever—is at the root of the harm that afflicts humanity.

James undoubtedly knew the sacred stories of Jewish tradition. He might have realized that Adam and Eve envied God’s omniscience and so they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that they could have what God had. James understood that Cain envied the favor that God showed his brother Abel, and so he killed his brother. James remembered that King David coveted his soldier Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, so he had Uriah killed and took Bathsheba as his own.

James also lived in the air that hummed with the wisdom of Greek philosophers, who also had a thing or two to say about envy. Socrates called envy the ulcer of the soul. Aristotle described a particular kind of sorrow felt because someone else has something that we don’t.

But, he tells us, envy has no place in the realm of God. The values of God’s world are superior to those of the secular world. The values of heaven are opposed to the values of the world. Friendship with heaven means living in peace, mercy, love for neighbor, living without partiality. Friendship with the world means living with murder, conflict, envy, greed, selfish ambition, disorder, and wickedness. And James makes it clear: we cannot live by both worldly standards and the heavenly one. We must make a choice, and if we choose the values of the world, we are being unfaithful to God.

Here’s a choice. If you were a multi-billionaire, would you choose to send four people into space, with the goal of getting humans to Mars one day, or would you buy back land rights in the Amazon rain forest to preserve it for conservation? The choices made by Elon Musk and Swedish millionaire Johan Eliasch might illustrate the kind of choices that face us. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/johan-eliasch-buy-amazon-rainforest/

In my estimation of things, Musk’s adventure was a worldly waste of money, and Mr. Eliasch’s was a generous act. The truth remains that neither venture hurt either man; both still have plenty of money to spend as they will.

The other story I want to add into the mix this morning is about the Guatemalan women some of us have met through our support of the microloan program. This week we received an update that COVID has utterly ravaged their world. In a culture where machismo rules, men believe they are too strong for COVID to defeat and do not allow their families to get vaccinated. But for the women whose labor provides the family’s income, it is a harrowing choice—stay home and stay safe, or go to work to earn money and risk getting sick. I wonder what James would say about all of this.

Now because James was writing to a community about their communal values, I want us to hear James’ words as a community and not as individuals. What would it mean for Westminster to live in friendship with heaven and not with the world?

First, let’s say what it does not mean. To have friendship with heaven and not with the world does not mean we do not engage with the world. It doesn’t mean we ignore our neighbors. It doesn’t mean we don’t get involved with things that are messy and complicated and so very human. It doesn’t mean we make choices based on envy.

It does mean that we make choices based on the virtues James writes about. To go back to early lessons, Westminster being friends with heaven means showing no partiality. It means communicating things that are true, kind, and necessary. It means making choices that are full of mercy and peace and gentleness.

What does that mean practically? Well, for one thing, it means we don’t care about winning first place in any particular category. I am profoundly uninterested in being the best preacher in town. I don’t care if we have the best building, the best choir, the best adult education, the best programs for children and youth, the best outreach, the best roses, the best pew cushions, the best bell ringers, the best staff, or the best parking lot. As a community, we aspire to live contentedly and without envy.

But then I’ve been wondering this, too: is there such a thing as good envy? Is it possible to look at what someone has, and want that, and then be motivated to have that too?

For example, what if we as a congregation looked at some of our neighboring churches and thought, we would like that for us. What if we looked up the street at Augustana Lutheran, and said, “Wow—Augustana does an amazing job of long-term commitment to social justice issues, and in particular, to the issue of reducing gun violence. They have modeled how to nurture deep, ongoing relationships around an issue of vital importance to everyone in our community. We envy that, and aspire to be more like them.”

Or what if we said, “Salt and Light Lutheran has been incredibly creative and faithful in redefining who they are and how they live out the gospel call. They have been brave and bold and clear. We envy that and would love to be more like them.”

Or what if we said, “Genesis Community Fellowship has been an anchor in the northeast community for years, modeling racial reconciliation, and now, after their founding pastor’s retirement, recommitting not only to their neighborhood and members, but in becoming One H.O.P.E. Fellowship, embracing new leadership and a new call. We envy that and would love to use their model as our model.”

Can envy motivate us to renewed vision and call? Probably—if done correctly!

The last eighteen months of the pandemic have created a unique opportunity for us because so much of what we were used to has gone away. We’ve lost so much, but not all of that loss has been bad. To use James’ metaphor, the last eighteen months have destroyed a lot of long-held traditions and ways of doing things; the pandemic has unearthed not only things that might have held us back but also things that are important to us at our deepest core.

We’ve learned that having coffee and cookies every week after worship is not nearly as important as the opportunity to see old friends and make new ones. We’ve learned that our worship of God and our ministry among our neighbors is not tied to a building. We have unearthed an essential element of our personality—that we really do care for each other when in crisis; casseroles still get delivered, cards still get sent, people still see each other for conversation, though masked and socially distanced.

The Deep Dive Task Force is taking all that into consideration as we do our work. Next week you will hear more about all this. This group of folks has been meeting for the last sixth months, and we’ve started to think about those things that are at the core of Westminster, those values we have that are based on our friendship with heaven and not with the world. We’ve talked about those things about Westminster that delight us and that disappoint us.

In the coming months—please, God—we will begin to move out of this pandemic life into whatever our new normal will start to be. And in the coming months, the leadership at Westminster will continue to reflect on all that we’ve learned and dream about who we are being called to be, as a community of faith that gathers around Jesus and his teachings.

It might be a good thing for us to invite James to join us in our conversations. It would probably be good to have the words of his letter echo in our hearts and minds. What will it mean for Westminster to show no partiality? What will it mean for Westminster to be slow to speak and eager to listen? What will it mean for us to be grounded in our friendship with heaven? What will it mean for us not only to nurture our faith but to commit ourselves to the works of our faith?

I don’t know the answers to those questions yet, but I look forward to thinking about them with you.

Here is what I know. I love you and I miss you. I say that every time I lead noon prayers, and I mean it. I miss you the way I miss the quiet chatter before worship, and the hum of the Great Hall during coffee hour, and the laughter of our kids as they play Wild Goose Chase through the building.

And because I love you, I want the best for you and for Westminster, not because I want us to be the best, but because I hope to echo those words of Jesus that are about faith giving us life and life abundant.

May we show by our good life together that our works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.

Amen.