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Foundry United Rev. DeeAnne Lowman, Associate Pastor |
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Living in the Thin Places: Conflicts Sunday, January 28,
2007 |
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Matthew 21:12-17 |
Epiphany
is the climax of the Advent/Christmas Season and the Twelve
Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from the evening of
December 25th until the morning of January 6th, which is the Twelfth Day and
the evening of January 6th is counted as the Twelfth Night. This is also the night traditionally
commemorating the arrival of the Magi at the home of Mary and Joseph and the
young Jesus child, bearing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. In
traditional Christian churches Epiphany is celebrated as a period of time, a
season of the church year, rather than just a day. The so-called Season of
Christmas begins with the First Sunday of Advent,
marked by expectation and anticipation, and concludes with Epiphany,
which looks ahead to the mission of the church to the world in light of the
Nativity. It is
the Nativity – this glimpse on the face of the Holy – that makes Epiphany the
perfect time to speak of thin places. The Celtic understanding of thin places
is where the veil between heaven and earth is lifted…where it becomes so thin
that we can see into eternity and catch a glimpse the divine. There are a
variety of thin places we can remember from the Bible: mountaintops, water-walkings, mealtimes,
healings – all these were and are thin places for people of faith. Throughout
this season of Epiphany, we’ve been talking about thin places. We remember that thin places aren’t always
places. There are people or
experiences in our lives that help us to see God and reach for God, and when
and through whom God reaches for us.
First we spoke about sacraments as thin places – baptism and communion
specifically, but also occasions like marriage, confirmation, ordination, and
even death can be revealed as thin places.
Last week Dean spoke of places where not only we catch a glimpse of
the divine, but a time when the eternal can seep through and actually touch
us. The Bible calls that “an anointing”
– a touch from God into our lives and onto our hearts. To
believe in thin
places you must also believe in a reality which is beyond what we can
see, touch, taste and smell. Thin places mean little to those who are
convinced that nothing is real that cannot be identified and quantified. Thin places
elude those with no mind for mystery and no longing for transcendence. Thin
places are not always easy places to be, and they are certainly not
conflict-free. They are opportunities
for us to grow and be stretched and molded in people who can live and love
and fight for justice with God. I’ve
recently been trying to get back into a regular practice of Yoga, but I have
an ongoing conflict with my body about that goal. It’s been more than six
months since I attended my last class in Some
conflicts are destructive, harmful, or even dangerous. God is, in deed, reaching out for us during
these times of pain. But we are
probably so distracted by the nature of these conflicts that we are unable to
see or feel or touch God while we are in it.
Sometimes we see conflicts as thin places only after we have moved
through them. But it
isn’t the nature of the conflict that determines whether or not it’s a thin
place. It is our nature and the nature
of God together that creates the distance between us as we move in and out of
conflict. In the Scripture that we just heard, Jesus comes into the temple
and finds it in disarray. There are
conflicts erupting as people bought and sold offerings. The moneychangers were taking advantage of
faithful worshippers; the exchange rate for temple money far exceeded the
actual cost. Worshippers were using
the temple as a place to redeem their social status rather than a house of
redemption. To Jesus, this was a scene
of chaos, injustice, and blasphemy. He
was sick of it (or so it appeared), so he turned the tables over, and he
chased out the people who were selling and buying. Conflict
in community is necessary. Many people have said, “If there is no conflict
then there is no real relationship.” Growth and relational depth is fostered
as we work through the issues of life together. Conflict can be
constructive. It can help eliminate
misunderstanding, empower those who feel helpless, and begin to build new
levels of trust. We are then free to establish even closer bonds with one
another and with God. Conflict can draw us into God’s care during the
experience. Our failure to acknowledge a disagreement as a thin place fails
to draw us into God’s vision for reconciliation and redemption. It is where we may sense a loosening of the
bounds of our humanity. We may see God
in the life of the other. There
are both private and public conflicts that occur in our lives. Private
conflicts seldom (we hope) make headlines, but they are just as
devastating. A divorce or the end of a
long-term relationship, a friendship derailed due to a disagreement, a
teenaged child and parent unable to connect and communicate – all possess the
potential for either more division or honest, real reconciliation. Our personal conflicts tend to turn our
worlds upside down for a time. There
is great pressure to forgive and forget, especially when it comes to
family. There is social pressure to
keep our long-term relationships intact, even if it means we can’t be who we
believe we were meant to be. Private
conflicts can be thin places for us. Then
there are the public conflicts. At the
2000 session of General Conference held in Emotions
and tensions ran very high at the conference.
There were those for whom hospitality was primary and they held open
the doors of the convention center, symbolizing their desire for a fully
inclusive On the
10th day of the conference, two pieces of legislation came to the
floor for debate and a vote. By
margins of approximately 2 to 1, the 992 delegates said the practice of
homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, and no self-avowed
practicing homosexual can be ordained as clergy or given a pastoral
appointment. Debate on the two questions took approximately 90
often-agonizing minutes. At one point delegates and some visitors stood in
the aisles of the After
the votes, Bishop Dan Solomon, who was presiding, met with some of the
demonstrators and announced they had reached agreement to continue the
protests in an orderly fashion, standing in the aisles or kneeling at the
altar. By mid-afternoon – after delegates voted to retain the church’s
prohibition against pastors performing same-sex union ceremonies -- the
“covenant” began to break down and demonstrators moved to the platform area.
Solomon bowed his head and then implored the group to return to their earlier
positions of kneeling or standing in the aisles. One of
the group said the church has broken the covenant with them and they felt
their actions were justified. A 15-minute recess was called, later extended
to 25 minutes. Police were called and 30 persons were arrested, including two
bishops—C. Joseph Sprague, then of Chicago, and Susan M. Morrison, then of No
matter how painful, this event in the life of the church was a thin
place. But seven years later, we
appear to be no closer to a resolution to this divisive and hurtful
quandary. In fact, it seems like the
space between the two factions is getting wider in some ways. I believe that we have experienced thin
places together as a church body during the 30-year long debate on this issue
– through places and times and people.
It is in these thin places that, if we are open to it, we see Jesus
turn everything upside down. That’s
what Jesus does with conflict; he turns the conflict around to help us see
where the pain is, where the hurt is. In these thin places, there is disorder
and defiance. Whether it is a public
conflict, a more private division like the ending of a relationship, or our
most private conflicts that occur within ourselves, we may experience
something that has been dormant or forgotten.
Jesus helps us recognize where the chaos is, and how we need to live
through the chaos to the calm. In
thinking about this further, I believe that conflict becomes the thin
place only after we have our tables turned and benches flipped over,
when our foundations are shaken and the walls of our own pride have come
down. It is only then, when we have experienced the turbulence of conflict,
that we are ready to have God reach in through all the defiance and
discontent and remake us and renew us and transform us. What
did Jesus do after the so-called cleansing of the temple? He healed those who came to him. It was only after the conflict regarding
the true purpose of the temple that it became a place where people could be
healed. It was only after the conflict
of the true purpose of the temple that Jesus was able to make the temple a
place where those without sight could see and those who were lame were
strengthened to walk. It was only then that people could truly and personally
and intimately connect with God.
Conflict can clear away all the clutter of our own agendas, clearing
the way for God’s purpose and vision for God’s people. So we
will emerge from this turmoil as the church.
How that will happen is unknown right now, and perhaps the next
General Conference will reveal even more of the conflict between the divide. This congregation of the So in
and through conflict, our lives may feel upside down and disrupted. We will
feel sadness, despair, anger, even fear of being in the conflict. But if we can stretch our hearts and minds,
bending ever closer to God during these thin places, we can emerge healed,
whole, reconciled, and brought into a new relationship with one another and
with God. www.foundryumc.org |
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