God has a Dream

I was driving east on the Mass Pike earlier this week, on my way home from a late afternoon meeting in Worcester. It was the time of day that I most love in winter. I looked in my side mirror – and then in my rearview mirror – and I saw the beautiful orange and red colors of the sun setting in the west, marking the end of another day. Soon, of course, the darkness settled in all around me. I continued driving, peacefully, in the dark, along the road ahead of me – until I was about 3 miles out from my exit to (route) 495. Then the traffic came to a complete stand still. Checking Google map, I discovered there was massive gridlock on 495 heading south, on both sides of the Mass Pike. (My guess is the traffic  jam was caused by people heading to Foxboro for the Monday Night Football game). I took a different route home.

For a time that afternoon, I found myself between the mystery of God’s presence in creation, illumined by the sunset behind me, and the chaos of this present world, represented by the many people and cars ahead of me, stuck in traffic in the dark on their way to some place.

This seems to be a metaphor for the times we are living in now. Liturgically, we are in the season of Advent; waiting for the coming of Jesus; waiting to catch a glimpse of Jesus breaking into this world with his message of justice and peace for all people. We are waiting for the kingdom of heaven to come near. We are waiting for the light of Christ, the light that shines in the darkness (John 1:5), to shine in this world and illumine the path we are to take, as we seek to follow Jesus to act boldly to build community with diverse people and to nurture creation.

Here on earth it’s sometimes challenging to see the light of Christ shining in the darkness, given the darkness of the world around us. We live in a dark world; a sinful world; and it seems to be getting darker and more sinful every day.

Here’s an example of the darkness: this week the President of the United States, speaking publicly in a Cabinet meeting, called Somali immigrants living and working in Minnesota “garbage” and then he called a duly elected US Representative from Minnesota, who is of Somali descent, “garbage”. These are people of color; people who do not look like the president. In his cold heart and shallow mind, this makes them inferior to him and not worthy of being treated with respect and dignity.

These hateful remarks, directed by the president at a specific group of people because of the color of their skin have the potential to incite violence against this group of people and others who look like them. Perhaps that is the point of the remarks.

As people who believe that Jesus Christ came that all might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10), we should  all be outraged and appalled that the leader of this country would make such racist and dehumanizing remarks about our neighbors. We should all be denouncing these words as loudly as we can.

We live in a dark world; a sinful world; and it seems to be getting darker and more sinful every day.

Yet, there is Good News today.

Into our world this morning comes John the Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, making the path straight and proclaiming Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

God’s reign of justice and peace and love for all people is near. That is what we are waiting for! How shall we respond?

Now is the time to repent; to turn back to God. Now is the time for metanoia (the Greek word for repentance). It is the time to change our minds and to change our ways. It is time to be transformed by the Word of God and to live differently in this world. For the one who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire is coming into the world. Change is in the air.

This month at Holy Trinity, some of us are reading and discussing the book Call to Allyship: Preparing Your Congregation for Leaders of Color. This book is written by leaders of color in the ELCA with the intent to give “white folks of goodwill a means to start courageous conversations within theirs spheres of influence.” These courageous conversations center around what it’s like to be a leader of color in a predominantly white denomination and the work we white people can, and must do, to become allies with leaders of color so that we may understand, welcome and celebrate these leaders and the gifts they bring to God’s church.

For those of us who are white, this book challenges us to give careful and prayerful consideration to our own thoughts, beliefs and actions as we relate to people of color. It challenges us to give up the notion that the color of one’s skin defines a person’s character. It challenges us to repent, to change our minds and our ways, and to live differently; to love and support and encourage people of every skin color and ethnicity to live into the fullness of God’s grace which is freely given to all people through Jesus Christ.

This book challenges us to think and act differently.

Do you know….

• that all humans share 99.9% of our DNA? That means we are all linked in ways we may not know or understand.
• that if you peel back the very thin top layer of skin of any two people, regardless of skin color, what you see beneath the skin (organs, blood vessels, nerves, muscles, etc.) all looks the same?
• that 85% of the world’s population live of African, Asian, indigenous, or Latin American descent (the Global Majority). That means only 15% of people are white (European descent). Being white is not the norm.

We know that God created all humans in the same way – in God’s own image – and for the same purpose – to love God, to love one another, to care for God’s creation. God has a dream for all humans – that we will live together in peace and harmony and safety; with enough provisions for every creature to live well. The prophet Isaiah describes God’s dream in this way:

 The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

Here are unexpected images of predator animals and their prey and babies and venomous snakes all living together in peace.

Here is an image of the life of righteousness and justice that is possible when the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord and all God’s people live by the spirit of the Lord – the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirt of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Is 11:1-2).

This is the dream God has for all God’s people and creation.

May it be our dream as well.