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Are
you one of those people who waits to make a decision until you’ve exhausted all
your options? For those of you who know the Enneagram, I’m a six. If you don’t
know the Enneagram, sixes tend to worry. When people ask me what number I am, I
typically respond, “Ah, yes, I’m a six. I’m afraid of the world.” However, that
fear is typically founded in a worry about something. I’m worried someone will
die. I’m worried the sermon won’t be exactly how I want it. I’m worried I will
get too overwhelmed. I’m worried
Curran won’t come back.
Sometimes it’s about little things, like my travel
mug purchase this weekend. Sometimes it’s been about bigger things, like a year
ago when I was asking: how would I tell my family I’m dating someone of my same
gender. Sometimes it’s worry for the sake of worry, but other times it’s
actually discernment. When we run through the entire gamut of options
considering which will be best, weighing pros and cons, debating for hours,
weeks or months, we are actually taking part in an important spiritual practice
that helps us see beyond ourselves.
In
our passage from Luke 14, we hear Jesus talking to crowds of people and before
we know it, he’s floored them all. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate
father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life
itself, cannot be my disciple.” I can just imagine the crowd, wide-eyes, jaws
dropped… Notice how no one is recorded to have said anything back to Jesus… The
thing is, though that Jesus doesn’t actually mean “hate”, like the intense
loathing of a person, but rather it’s as if he said, “You need to know, that
your relationships with these people will change, they will not be the only
thing in your life if you come and follow me.” In this passage, Jesus
acknowledges the risk that comes with being his follower. He wants the crowds
to know that there are a lot of factors that come into play when making such a
big decision as this. It changes the way we understand what we own, the
relationships we have to friends and family, and the responsibilities we
accept. Much like any issue today,
following Jesus was a multi-layered situation.
You
see, Jesus’ earthly ministry was all about helping people discern the ways in
which they were going to be a catalyst for the Kin-dom of God on earth. I am
convinced that the way in which these verses speak to that ministry today is in
the spiritual practice of “considering all the factors.” The Divine calls us to
see the situation from a variety of perspectives because our faith is bigger
than ourselves. Our faith inspires us to consider this… and this… and
that.
For
those of you who have been following the news, Syria is in the midst of a grave
national crisis. They have been fighting a civil war for two years and the
governing regime under Bashar Al-Assad has now potentially engaged the use of
chemical weapons. The political viewpoints are numerous and the questions are
countless. The situations in the middle east are messy and complicated and
consequently, so is our response. As Christians and as residents of this world,
we have to ask ourselves, with 2 million refugees, 1.8 million Syrian people in
need of humanitarian aid, 100,000 casualties and chemical weapons on the
world’s radar, what are we to do? What is the international community’s role? Could
sending strategic missile strikes do more good than harm? Should we meet
killing with more killing? How do we hold Assad accountable? And these questions
are only the tip of the iceberg.
There
are all of the questions, and none of the answers. Well, there are lots of
answers but we cannot ever expect to have the absolute right answer. When we
claim to have the right or the only answers, we often times get there by
dismissing all the other perspectives and opinions around us. We take only our
own perspective into account, which is important, but it then also dismisses
the needs of those around us. Yes, this Syrian conflict has implications for
the U.S. but that is only one way of viewing the situation. As people of God,
of the Divine, we are in relationship with the international community. Because
of this, we cannot negate the experience of the 1 million children that have
become Syrian refugees over the last two years. Because of this, we also cannot
negate the worth of Bashar Assad’s life. Because of this, we cannot overlook
the implication of chemical weapons. There are many, many complex layers to
this situation. And although we, in this room, are not making any decisions
about what happens in Syria, we are forming opinions about what should or
should not happen in the coming days and weeks. These opinions are guided by
our values as they are rooted in our faith. At General Synod, the national gathering of the United
Church of Christ, our denomination, there was a pastor who informed all the
delegates that they were not voting their opinion, they were voting God’s
opinion. The decisions they were making about the denomination were not of
their own view but of how they discerned God would vote.
Jesus’
discourse in Luke 14 asks us this question: Are our values and our
relationships congruent with our relationship to the Holy? We forget that this faithful part of
our lives plays a role in the things we believe and therefore the things we do.
I wonder if this nation’s political advisors also took a moment to think about
whether or not they were considering all the options and voting God’s opinion,
if the country would come to different conclusions. I am hopeful that they
would.
We
are called to constantly discern our values, to discern all of the pieces
involved, to look at an issue from every side. As I was thinking about this, I
was reminded yesterday of Antoinette Tuff, the bookkeeper at an elementary
school in Decatur, GA who talked down an armed gunman. The heavily armed man
came in ready to kill young children and teachers, and Antoinette Tuff, while
praying silently as she spoke, invited the man to recognize that he was worthy
of living this life too. She explained to him that she too had a difficult
point in her life but she made it through and was so grateful for the chance to
try life again. This woman’s values of life, dignity, and worth were based in
her faith in God and they are the same values that helped her talk this young
man into surrendering himself to the police. She began a conversation that
could have ended in death, but the values she held, in that instance, helped a
nation understand that listening can compete with gun laws, and the respect for
life can overcome the desire for death.
Antoinette Tuff understands the importance of seeing an issue from all
sides.
If
we really want the world to change, if we really want the Kin-dom of God to
come to fruition, we have to consider all the questions from every side of the
issue. We have to take into consideration the perspective of the rich and the
poor, the powerful and the vulnerable, the blue-collar worker and the stay at
home parent, the history of that nation or the world, the single person and the
family down the street, we have to discern both the risks and the rewards.
I
am convinced that God is in the plethora. God takes delight in the multiplicity
of perspectives any one issue can hold. God is there to help us discern, to help
us sort it all out. And the Good News is this: God is there to love us through
the process. God is present in the decision making surrounding Syria, and God
is in the midst of your process too.
Amen.
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