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| Daylight Saving Time Joshua 10: 12-14 & James 4: 1-10 March 11, 2007 I was looking at my liturgical calendar at the lectionary readings for this week to see what I ought to preach about. There are four options, Old Testament, Psalm, Gospel and Epistle. I read them all and none of them grabbed me or stimulated any inspiration. But when I got to the last one on my calendar, I noticed one more listing: “Daylight Saving Time.” I was surprised that it was on there as part of the ecclesiastical year, but since it was better than any of the others, I decided to go with it. The text, of course, would have to be that story from Joshua where God made the sun stand still. The problem with that story is the reason God supposedly did it: so that the Israelites would have more time for killing. It’s amazing to me that they could be that sure that the God who commanded, “Thou shalt not kill” would be complicit in this bloody business. He even joined in the killing, killing more with hail stones than the Israelites did with swords. It lends some insight into contemporary events. All religions have their holy wars: for the Hebrews it was the conquest of Canaan, for the Christians it was the Crusades, and for the Moslems, it’s now. In each case a great religion has been able to set aside basic tenants of their faith in order to engage in violence for a good cause. And in each case the organized and respectable violence called war degenerates into atrocity: witness the Audu-Greb prison and the ongoing bombing of civilians by religious zealots. This week it was a religious pilgrimage that was targeted. War has a way of reducing everyone’s moral code to its lowest common denominator. When the fighting was over in Canaan, Joshua trotted out five prisoners, leaders of the opposing forces, and lopped off their heads. Fortunately there was no one there with a video camera or it would have shown up on the internet. So, since I’ve given up murder for lent I decided to look for something else to preach about. Purim – that happens on the 13th of Adar on the Jewish calendar. (Scholars agree that is March on our calendar) It celebrates the bravery of Esther in delivering the Hebrews from being victimized by their Persian captors. But it has the same problem. They aren’t just delivered: they go on a killing rampage. Then they ask the King for one more day so they can kill some more. Better than having the day extended; you get a little rest period before you start again. So what else is on the calendar? I know! Saint Patrick’s Day. Let me tell you about St. Patrick; he didn’t chase the snakes out of Ireland, there never were any there since Ireland was disconnected from the European land mass. He had nothing to do with shamrocks; they became a symbol of revolution centuries later. And St. Patrick wasn’t Irish, he was English. That’s the way it often goes; Hitler wasn’t German, Napoleon wasn’t French, Stalin wasn’t Russian, and Alexander wasn’t Greek – And Patrick wasn’t Irish. Ands he wasn’t a saint: not at the beginning. He was a ruffian, a member of a froth century street gang. Then an Irish gang from across the channel came on a raid, captured Patrick, took him to Ireland and sold him as a slave. He escaped and after six years or so, went back to England a more sober man and joined the church. One scenario would be for him to open his Bible, read about Joshua and Esther, get his gang together and go back to Ireland for a little righteous revenge. And no one would have blamed him. Maybe he recited the Psalm the night before the slaughter, “O daughter of Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall be he who requites you for what you have done to us! Happy shall be he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” If you don’t believe me look it up – Psalm 137. But he didn’t identify with Joshua or Esther or the anger of the captive Hebrews. He identified with Jesus. He went to Ireland with the love of Christ in his heart and on his lips ant the nation was converted and he became their patron saint. So w2hat is that about the war between Irish Catholics and Protestants? Christians killing Christians like the Moslems killing Moslems in Iraq. Over the years the celebration of St. Patrick degenerated into an opportunity to drink green beer and recite dirty limericks. The liturgical color for the feast day of St. Patrick is not green, the color of the shamrock the symbol of Irish revolution; It is blue, the color of peace. Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and wept – and mourned, “Would that you knew the things that make for peace.” There was an article in the news last week about the increasing presence of the Atheists in the public forum. One of their leaders was being interviewed and he said that religion was not only false, it was dangerous. More violence has been and still is committed in the name of religion than any other cause. No point in arguing that; history is on their side. “I have seen him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps. They have builded him an altar in the evening dues and damps. I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. His truth is marching on.” How can that be the theme song for a war? How can you read his righteous sentence by dim and flaring lamps then rise at sunrise and kill your brothers who the night before said their prayers to the same God? How can that be? Thus, I finally fount the text for today, in the back of the Book of James: the cause of wars. “You covet what you don’t have so you go to war.” According to James, the condition that afflicts the church is called “double mindedness.” We claim to be guided by our faith, to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. The one who warned, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” “You reap what you sow.” The one whom we call the Prince of Peace. We are double minded people. All of our motivations are not spiritual. Some times we give way to the value systems of the physical world and give our ascent to acts of violence and wars, all in the cause of righteousness. Some of it is revenge of course, but it’s also a desire for justice, security, liberation of oppressed people, and to be seen as patriots. Worthy causes. Except that violence, even for a righteous cause, begets violence. What you plant, you harvest. If you want a harvest of peace, you have to sow the seeds of peace. If we want our children to grow up as peace lovers, we can’t serve them up a constant diet of violence as entertainment. You get back what you put in. The Israelite nation, born of violent conquest, died the same way. The Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom and the Babylonians the Southern. Then the Persians came in and conquered the Babylonians and then the Romans conquered everyone. And 60 years after the Prince of Peace came to show the way, the Romans put down a Jewish rebellion and destroyed the Holy Temple, the heart of the nation. Israel ceased to exist – until 1948 when a new nation was established with the same name – established and maintained not by faith but by force in the form of F14 fighters and Cruise Missiles provided by us. How is it that a nation that thinks of itself as a peace loving people is the world’s largest provider of weapons of war? How is it that the most technologically advanced nation in the world is also its biggest polluter? How is it that the world’s richest nation is also the world’s biggest debtor nation? How is it that a nation, the majority of whose people describe themselves as Christian, are okay with all that – actually in full support of all that? James has told us the answer. Just as St Patrick’s Day degenerated into a drinking orgy, so goes Easter. Now it’s mostly about egg hunts and a parade down Fifth Ave. This is not a commentary on the war; it’s a commentary on us. The question that plagues me is this: What are we sowing in the world? As a nation. As a Church. Individually. If Jesus is right, and history tends to bare it our, then we will harvest what we have sown. I have a four year old daughter. She will live in the world that I helped create with my actions and my silence. She will reap what I have sown. I must begin to sow more Kingdom seeds. Lent is the time for such
painful contemplation: to reclaim the words of another psalm. (Psalm
27) “You have said, ‘seek my face.’ My heart says
to you, ‘your face Lord, do I seek.’ Teach me your way,
O Lord, and lead me on a level path. I believe that I shall see
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the
Lord: be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait on the
Lord.” We are people of the light. There is still time to
save the light in this holy season of Daylight Saving Time. As always you can get a DVD of this sermon. Contact the church office.
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