Sunday, July 20, 2014

Surely God is in this Place! Sermon from July 20, 2014, San Lucas UCC

Genesis 28: 10- 19
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran.  He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set.  Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.  And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.  And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham hour father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in your and in your offspring.  Know that I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”  Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this pace – and I did not know it!”  And he was afraid, and said, “how awesome is this place!  This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gage of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.  He called that place Beth-el.

Isaiah 44:6-8
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
I am the first and the last
Besides me there is no god.
Who is like me?  Let them proclaim it,
Let them declare and set it forth before me.
Who has announced from of old the things to come?
Let them tell us what is yet to be.
Do not fear, or be afraid;
Have I not told you from of old and declared it?
You are my witnesses!
Is there any god besides me?
There is no other rock; I know not one.



Surely God is in this Place!

Good morning.  My name is Jessica Palys.  I work with Pastor Marilyn at A Just Harvest, and just graduated Chicago Theological Seminary.  Pastor Marilyn asked me to step in for her here while she’s having a restful time in Puerto Rico.  I am grateful to be here with you all today.   Please pray with me:

God, we are blessed by your presence and do bless others with your presence.  We gather here, grateful that your love has sustained us another day.  I ask that not my words, Lord, but your meaning touches our hearts this morning.  May the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, you who are our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

In today’s first scripture reading, we learn that Jacob has stolen his father’s blessing, which was intended for his older brother Esau.  He is afraid.  He flees his homeland because he fears vengence from his brother.  He comes to a place, and has the first personal encounter with God through his dream, which, for Jacob, shows that God’s promise for his family is still true, even though he tricked his father into giving him the blessing.  For the first time Jacob knows that he is, actually, still protected by God. 

He wakes and proclaims, “Surely God is in this place!”

God makes many promises to Jacob; God promises him land; many descendants living all throughout the area; that God will bless other people through the blessing he gives Jacob.  Furthermore, God commits never to leave Jacob and always to ‘keep’ him.

The blessings make clear to me that, not only is God in that place, but ‘Surely, God is in Jacob!’  Not only will God stay with Jacob and keep him, but through Jacob, God will bless other people.

Last Sunday, Pastor Marilyn said we are called not only to follow, but join and lead in the movement of Jesus Christ that makes the promise of Life available to all.  That God calls us each by name to receive the love of God, and bring that love to others.  Is this not the blessing of Jacob?  Surely, God is in THIS place too!

In my sleep, I sometimes have personal encounters with God.  Has anyone else had these? Sometimes I dream, and like Jacob, in those dreams I talk with God.  I find clarity.  I find peace and comfort, and hope.

But the problem is, I wake up.  And I am faced, again, with the reality of the world around us – the world as it is.

I was at a training all last week in beautiful Woodstock, IL, on a large seminary campus with green fields and trees and no television.  This was an organizing training, and the training asked us to fully focus inward on our own fears and obstacles.  The schedule was so jam-packed that I hardly had time to check Facebook or call my mom, let alone keep up with the weekly news.  It felt a little like dream-time.  But then it ended, and I returned to the world as it is.

Last night’s online headline in the Chicago Tribune read, “Be with us, God, we need you now” in East Garfield Park.  This was because 22 people were shot in Chicago in 12 hours on Saturday.   An 11-year old girl was at a sleepover making s’mores when a bullet came through the wall and hit her.  82 people were shot over the July 4th weekend in Chicago.  And in the last few months alone, one shooting occurred 3 blocks from our office at a Just Harvest, and 2 of the deaths were friends of Marilyn’s daughter. 

I wake up from my dreams to find record numbers of tragedies.  It’s hard to fight the urge to go back to ‘sleep’.

Guns and bullets are terrorizing our city streets this summer. Now, I’m not naïve enough to think that guns are the only reason people die on Chicago’s streets.  I recognize the decades of dis-investment – when government funding and business leaving neighborhoods, followed by jobs, and then those able to follow the jobs, leaving a wake of poverty, powerlessness, and fear. 

In the second scripture we read today, the prophet Isaiah speaks a challenge from God – “let any who is like me, show themselves!  Show their power!”  God challenges the idols and the demons to show the power they have – because none have the power equal to God. 

Fear is a demon.  Fear is something that can multiply almost instantaneously.  Have you ever seen fear grow through a crowd just based on uncertainty?  After 9/11, I saw this around me and occasionally felt this panic myself – if a plane flew too low, or I heard an explosion, or whispers from people in a crowd in the midst of confusion.

But fear can also be marketed.  Packaged up and sold to us through commercials or movies.  Narrated in pop music. Reinforced over and over again on the evening news, in our politician’s speeches, and shown in our “tough on crime” laws.  Fear will tell us that there are people who are simply evil who will always be evil, so we need strong laws and long prison sentences, regardless of how much it costs us.  Fear will tell us we can’t trust each other. Fear will keep us from standing together.

Just like fear can be packaged, fear can be profitable.  And it turns out fear can be very profitable.  Since the 1980’s, millions of dollars have been funneled to private prisons across the country to hold the national inmate population.  Many of these private prison contracts with state governments contain mandatory bed quotas – a requirement that a certain number of people must be incarcerated, filling a bed, at any given time – or our tax dollars go to pay for empty beds.  You have to wonder if our “tough on crime” laws – 3 strikes, zero tolerance, and mandatory minimums – are intended to protect us or to keep prisons full.  But the laws are sold to us on the basis of fear.

And that fear, many would like to believe, will go away if we carry a gun.

Last week Pastor Marilyn and I discovered that a Gun Shop is opening in the city of Niles – at 6143 W Howard, just 6 miles from our office, and a few hundred yards from 2 different schools.  A recent report found 20% of guns -ONE OUT OF EVERY 5 guns - used in Chicago crimes can be traced to 4 gun shops whose owners cannot control where their guns end up.  One of those owners is proposing this additional gun shop in Niles.

We know in our hearts that more access to guns will not bring God closer to us in this city.  More access to guns will not make one less mother cry out to God in pain.  We know more guns will mean more mothers’ cries, not less.

In Isaiah God says, “Do Not fear, or be afraid.”  God asks us to have courage rather than fear.  “You are my witnesses!’ it is declared.  God knows it is scary to be a witness to love in the midst of trial.  It is scary when we live in fear, and when we are led to be afraid of each other so that we all feel that we should be carrying guns.  But we cannot be afraid.  We must deliver the promise of life for others, and sometimes that requires standing up for each other.  Standing with each other.  Standing for each others’ promise of life.

We serve a God who has foretold the ending already – we are loved.  When we love each other – despite these fears dividing us – we are fulfilling the new thing that God promised.

Like Jacob, I say Surely God is in this place.  Surely he is.  I have seen God here in the walls of San Lucas.  Surely God is here in this city. But what Jacob doesn’t realize is that God is in him.  God blesses Jacob, and through Jacob, God blesses others.  God has blessed us, and God is in this place in our hearts – in each of us.  And we can bless others with our hearts and our actions.

There’s a hearing in Niles on Tuesday of this week on the proposal to open this gun shop.  I pray that God will be in that place, and that God’s voice will be heard in that place.  I pray that God’s voice will surely be louder than the demons of fear. I pray that God’s people in Chicago’s communities will have courage and stand up with each other against this fear.

We are called, by name, to carry our blessings forward and give others the promise of life. 


God says, “Do not be afraid.  I am the first and the last.  I will stay with you always, and I will keep you.  There is no other rock; I know not one.”  Come now, Lord, return to us again and again, and help us live our dreams.

No comments:

Post a Comment