Epiphany 2B 2009

A Sermon for the Sunday of Epiphany, Year B

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

“Its been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon…”

For years I’ve been a faithful Saturday evening listener to A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor’s old-fashioned variety show on National Public Radio. As some of you may know, each week Keillor tells about his mythical hometown, Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, the little town that time forgot. Lake Wobegon is the quintessential Midwestern small town, population 942, “a one-traffic light town with quiet streets lined by white frame houses.” [1]

If people in Lake Wobegon aren’t members of Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church they are Roman Catholics who belong to Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility. In winter, the fish house on the frozen lake is a man’s way of getting away from women and having a beer or schnapps, while maybe fishing, too. Vegetable gardening is a competitive sport and people worry about what will become of the next generation when they move to the Twin Cities or, God forbid, California. Keillor calls Lake Wobegon the place “where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average” -- and the people of lake Wobegon would surely agree. They are proud of their town and are sure they have every right to be.

The don’t feel the same about Millet, the town a few miles up the road. While the two towns would probably seem a lot alike to you or me, people in Lake Wobegon don’t see it that way.

“People of Lake Wobegon have always looked down on Millet going way back before my day,” says Keillor. “I suppose the towns were rivals at one time and then my town pulled ahead and Millet languished. People in Millet don't take care of their yards the way people in Lake Wobegon think you should. They don't raise their children right. They keep old wrecked cars in their backyards and old appliances and they sit outdoors in their shirtsleeves and drink beer. They're common. Their children are loutish, cruel, vulgar, and untrustworthy. The list goes on and on. We were told to stay away from those people, and so I have no idea if any of this is actually true: I've avoided Millet for most of my life. Like most contempt, it's based on poor information.” [2]

Poor information, yes, and the comforting conviction that “those” people are different from and therefore lesser than “our” people. “They” could not possibly be like “us.” People in Lake Wobegon would surely say, “Can anything good come out of Millet?” So, too, when Nathanael, from Cana in Galilee hears his friends say that somebody from nearby Nazareth might be the promised Messiah, he responds with the contempt of poor information and the comforting perception of superiority: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” I haven’t lived in this part Jersey long enough to have learned the local rivalries, but I bet it would be easy enough for you all to name the towns from which nothing good could possibly come – depending, of course, on where each of you live yourselves!

Not very long ago in this country – and among some to this day – it has often been thought and sometimes said, “Can anything good come out of Africa or people of African descent?” Poor information about Africa and African-Americans has played a role in this contempt. So, too, has white people’s culturally ingrained sense of superiority to black people. And embracing and exacerbating it all is the deep and deeply sinful history of slavery, and the racism which made slavery possible and which slavery made ever more powerful -- a racism that, as the people of color here know better than I possibly can – is far from eradicated in this nation.

On this New Years’ Day in Oakland, CA an unarmed young black man who had been subdued was shot in the back by a transit police officer as he lay face down on a subway platform.

You can see cell phone video of the shooting on You Tube. Somehow, I don’t think it likely the same thing would have happened to my son. “Can anything good come out of Africa or people of African descent?” has sadly, been part of the unspoken but deeply held creed of this nation for centuries.

And yet for all of that awful, sinful history, in two days we will inaugurate as our President an American of African descent. As countless people have said since the first tears of disbelief and joy were shed on Election Night, this is an historic event in American history; a moment when as nation we have at least in part repudiated that old attitude of contempt. And whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent; whether you voted for Barack Obama, John McCain or Ralph Nader; whether you most wished that Hillary Clinton had gotten the chance to make history for women in this country -- whatever your political persuasion, this is a moment to rejoice in the amazing step our nation has made in living up to its ideals. In the words of Martin Luther King, whom, providentially, we recall this week:

“…even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” [3]

On Tuesday, our nation will take a huge step towards the fulfillment of that dream, and for that we should be glad.

Now, in case you’d forgotten, my words today are supposed to be a Christian sermon and not a civics lesson – so where in all this is there Gospel? Where is the Good News of God in Christ to be found in this moment in American history? I have two thoughts on that to share – there are, no doubt, more.

The first is this: That the fulfillment of this part, at least, of the American Dream is also a fulfillment of part of God’s Dream for humanity. The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church commemorates Martin Luther King, Jr. as a saint of God, not just a great American. We do so because his passion came not only from his belief that American ideals demanded racial justice, but from his Christian conviction that it is God’s desire that all God’s children, black and white, Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholic be able to join hands and sing together. [4]

In this, Dr. King was echoing St. Paul’s words to the Galatians about baptism, words as radical in their day as King’s words in his: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” [5] We echo these thoughts in the Baptismal Covenant we renewed last Sunday afternoon, when we promised to “strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being.” [6] In its inclusion of all people, the Church is to be a microcosm of what God desires for all of humanity, the reconciling of all people one to another; the building of the Beloved Community of God. Martin Luther King preached that Gospel in his day; On Tuesday, our nation takes a further step in its realization.

We have, of course, much further to go. One reaction in Oakland to the subway shooting has been a repeated refrain in the African-American community there that this event has brought them “back to reality” -- the reality of ongoing racism in our society. Still, Tuesday’s inauguration is an amazing milestone – a milestone in which not only we can take joy, but God does as well. God’s dream for humanity has crossed another threshold, and in that God delights.

The second Gospel word about this week’s events is that the Gospel is about Jesus – not Barack Obama. In today’s Gospel story, Nathanael quickly moves from his contempt of anyone from Nazareth to his confession that Jesus is God’s Son. Jesus seems to chide Nathanael slightly at the sudden enthusiasm of his conversion, but he nonetheless accepts his words and says Nathanael will see even greater things if he sticks around Jesus: he will see Jesus as the link between earth and heaven, the ladder of life and salvation for all. This is said of Jesus, & Jesus only.

That is important for us all to remember at this time, especially for enthusiastic Obama supporters and all who have extraordinarily high expectations for our new President.

Whatever else he may be, Barack Obama is not the Messiah! Obama is a bright and gifted politician; perhaps he will prove to be a great leader. But he is also a human being with his own mix of frailties, weaknesses and sins, just like the rest of us. It is certain that he will make mistakes, disappoint supporters and antagonize opponents. That’s the normal reality of political leadership, and historic as his election is, Obama is not exempt from it.

A reality check is in order about what any new President can and cannot do in making much talked of and desired “change” happen-- especially in the face of a massive economic crisis, two ongoing wars and the resurgent conflict in the Middle East. Let no one imagine that President Obama will be able to wave a magic wand and make all things well. There is only one who can and will make all things well in God’s Kingdom, and that is the one Messiah, Jesus. Let us not put that unrealistic burden on Barack Obama’s slim shoulders.

Instead, let us do for him, for his administration and for the members of Congress what Christian people are called to do always for political leaders of all nations, races and ideologies: let us pray. The challenges our government and nation presently face are immense. Our leaders need all the prayers they can get.

We should pray that God will grant them the wisdom, courage, strength, integrity, faithfulness and humility needed to do what God always desires of human governments: the establishment of justice; the making of peace; provision for the poor, the reconciliation of enemies: in short, the building of a world that in some measure looks and acts a bit more like God’s Realm of Shalom in which the wolf and the lamb lie down together; where every family, language, people and nation feast together around God’s throne. The mere fact that our racially-divided nation has chosen an African American as our leader is a small step in that direction. Let us pray that his service in that role may takes us yet a few steps further in the years to come.

The Rev. Jack Zamboni, January 18^th, 2009