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A transcript of
Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation
U2charist for the MDGs – Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Thanks to Renee at FaithfulOhio.blogspot.com for
the transcription
For pdf download, click here
...It is good to be in God's house with God's people.
Let me offer some words from a Negro spiritual, sung by slaves in the
antebellum south. It's a very simple spiritual that basically says, "My
soul is a witness for the Lord."
Amen!
As the successive stanzas and verses of the song, beginning with "My
soul is a witness for the Lord" recount different people from the
Biblical stories. It begins, for example, with Methuselah (for y'all
Episcopalians, Methuselah was old!) It begins with Methuselah and says
"Methuselah was a witness for my Lord" and then it goes on and
tells the story of other folks, Deborah the Prophet was a witness for my
Lord, Queen Esther was a witness for my Lord, Daniel was a witness for my
Lord, Mother Mary was a witness for my Lord, Martha was a witness for my
Lord... And then, after going through the Biblical story, the singer comes to
the last verse and says "Now *who* will be a witness for my Lord?"
Moving from the Biblical past to a new Biblical present--who will be a
witness for my Lord?
When I was a kid, I grew up Episcopalian. My swaddling clothes were an
Episcopal flag! (laughter) So there were a few Episcopalians in my
family, but the rest were Baptists. When you went to church with them, there
was *action* on Sunday morning. And every once in a while, when the preacher
would preach, there would be these moments in the homiletical
experience (anticipatory laughter) when sometimes, when the preacher
may have felt that the congregation wasn't as responsive as they could
be--trying to get an "Amen!" out of them, and they wouldn't
respond, sometimes he'd say Amen like, "Amen, wall"...and if he
really got desperate, he might say, "Now can I get a witness?" (Yeah!)
And, "Can I get a witness?" was a rhetorical device to be sure,
that was to suggest a critical moment in the service. But more than that, it
was a *spritual* devide
intended to project the hearer from where they were in church out into the
world, where their discipleship was to be exercised. (Yeah!) When they
said "Can I get a witness?" they weren't talking about in church,
they were talking about *out there*. And that's what I'm going to talk about
for a few moments tonight.
And for a text--you see all of that was just introduction! (Laughter)
Let me offer these words from the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
Moments before our Lord ascended into heaven, returning to the fullness and
the mystery of God. Jesus, when his disciples wanted to know specifics about
how the Kingdom was gonna come, said "Y'all
can do your own strategic plans". He said "It's not for you to know
times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, in other
words, "There are some things that ain't y'all's business!" (Laughter).
And he goes on and says, "But you will receive power--you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses--in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth. You will receive power! (Amen!) Power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you. You are *sealed* by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as
Christ's own forever. You will receive *power* when the Holy Spirit comes
upon you, "Defend, O Lord, this thy Child, with
thy heavenly grace, that she may continue yours forever and daily increase in
your Holy Spirit." You will receive *power*!" (Cheers and
applause)
You will receive power, not for your own sake, but you will receive power,
and you will be *my* witnesses, in Jerusalem,
in Judea, in Columbus, in Cincinnati,
in Cleveland--and
unto the uttermost parts of the earth. (Laughter and applause)
Not I'm not going to keep you long--I'm going to
keep this brief so that we can get back to the music!
But I know there are probably some here thinking at this moment--you hear me
talking about "Can I get a witness?" and there's some of you, hearing
that word "witness", in a church environment, y'all must think,
Saturday morning, somebody walking two by two down the street, selling
Watchtower magazine. (Laughter).
And I believe in evangelism, because I believe we've got some *good news* to
share. It's a bad news world, and we've got some *good news* in this bad news
world!
I'm talking about a different kind of witness. I don't have any expectation
that we're going to get Episcopalians going out on Saturday morning, two by
two--giving out Episcopal Life. (Much
laughter) I'm talking about a witness that is born of our discipleship.
I'm talking about a witness that is born of our timid sometimes, halting
sometimes, but our willingess to follow Jesus of Nazareth.
To follow in the way of his teaching, to live in the way of his Spirit, to
*dare* to emulate his light, until his light becomes our light, and the world
begins to he his light through our lives.
And to help us, I think the text for Trinity Sunday is helpful. (Laughter).
Because I am convinced, when you read the third chapter of John--go home and
read John Chapter 3 again. Get those Bibles, get those Gideons
out of the--(laughter). And when you read John Chapter 3 and listen to
the story of Nicodemus, I am *convinced* that Nicodemus was the first
Episcopalian! (Laughter)
Now think about it--*only* Episcopalians would try to come to Jesus, quietly,
at night, when nobody was looking!" (Laughter and applause)
Now obviously Nicodemus came to Jesus quietly at night for good reason. You
have to remember that though Jesus and Nicodemus were both Palestinian Jews
of the first century, they came from very different worlds. Nicodemus, so far
as we can tell, was a preacher of the city--Jesus of Nazareth was a preacher
of the country. Nicodemus was well-learned and schooled in the great schools
of the rabbis. Jesus was a country preacher! An itinerant rabbi. Nicodemus
was part of the ruling power structure of first century Palestinian Judaism,
a member of the Sanhedrin. Jesus came from the peasant class. Nicodemus was
one of the privileged--help me somebody! (Amen!) Jesus came from folk
who were poor--from folk who *struggled* to find a daily possibility of
living. These two, though both first century Palestinian Jews, came from
entirely different worlds. And yet, to Nicodemus' credit, Nicodemus, the
great rabbi himself from Jerusalem,
went to this itinerant rabbi.
That's--I'm gonna say it--that's like Archbishop
Rowan Williams going to Oprah Winfrey for philosophy! (Extended laughter
and applause).
Nicodemus had good reason for going at night, because he was crossing into a
different world. And yet, thank God he did do it--he went anyway, as a
disciple going to his rabbi. One rabbi went to another. He went, and something
happened. *Something* happened, because, by the seventh chapter of John, we
shift to the Sanhedrin, and when some of the folk who are out to get Jesus,
are out to get him, it is Nicodemus who stands up for justice, and stands up
for decency, and stands up for Jesus!
John doesn't give us the details, but *something* happened, because, by the
end of the Gospel, after Jesus has been crucified, John's Gospel says that it
was Joseph of Arimethea and good old Episcopalian
Nicodemus who went and *begged* the body of Jesus from Pilate, and gave it a
proper burial. And you know only an Episcopalian's gonna
want to do things right! (Laughter).
I am convinced that in John's unfolding of the story of the Gospel and
of Nicodemus, what you have here is someone who engages on some level of
discipleship with this Jesus, and as he engages with this Jesus, he goes out,
somehow different, and goes out and begins to make a difference in this
world. Can I get a witness this night? (Yeah!)
I am *convinced* that we are Nicodemus. (Tell it!) And we have come by
night to Jesus. To Christ. To the Christ in those who have not. The Christ in
those who struggle, for a crust of bread. The Christ in children, hungry and
bereft. The Christ in a creation crying out to be cared for. The Christ in
women seeking human equality and dignity. The Christ in children who must
never again go to bed hungry. (Amen!) I daresay we have come to the
Christ that these Millenium Development Goals represent a moment and a
possibility of transfiguring discipleship, in which we can make a witness in
this world.
My friend and brother and colleague Bishop Steve Charleston, in a recent
essay, said this--and let me just read it to you for a second.
He said, "as the Episcopal church, the most important question before us
is not about schism or sexuality. It is about witness. What witness will we
make? In my life I have known many seasons in the Episcopal Church. This is
the season for our witness. This is the time for us to do something totally
unexpected and wonderful, to confound those who say we have lost our vision.
This is our moment to show the world that we can practice what we preach--
" (Amens and applause)
I am convinced that these Millenium
Development Goals, and our embrace of them passionately as an act of
Gospel-based discipleship, is a way for us to discover live again as a
church. (Yeah! and applause)
And I'm convinced, because Brother Bono has shown us the way. God will always
have a witness, and if the church doesn't give it, U2 will! (Laughter and
applause). And I'm convinced, because, I'm getting into the music, you
all gotta help me--I'm an old man without rhythm.
You can tell people you saw a Black man without rhythm! (Laughter) But
I am convinced that brother Bono has shown us the way by lifting up a
compelling vision of the world transformed from the nightmare it often is to
the dream that God has intended from the very beginning. That he has dared to
claim the high ground, and as he has claimed the high ground, folks have
gathered around him.
I can't think of any other context, or any other person, who has brought
Jesse Helms to the table, and Jesse Jackson to the table. (Laughter and
applause). When you claim the high ground, all will stand--all will rise.
Can I get a witness this night? (Yeah!)
And as we engage in this work, as we go forth, passionately convinced that
poverty *must* become history, that suffering *must* end, that war must
become obsolete (Yeahs and Amens)
then the world will not only find its light, but we will find ours.
Well, let me conclude it now--I really am gonna
stop. (Laughter) Y'all know the definition of an optimist? An optimist
is somebody who believes the preacher when he says "And in
conclusion..." But I do mean it, honestly.
I was probably about 13 if I remember correctly. And I don't remember what I
said or did, but my father responded to whatever I said--now think about
being 13--responded to whatever I said, with, "You know, the Lord didn't put you here just to consume the
oxygen!" Now, like I said, I don't know what I said to precipitate that,
and I don't know if it was a considered philosophical or theological
statement, or just responding to 13 year old hormones, but the more I live
and the older I get, the more I am convinced that there is profound wisdom in
that.
"The Lord didn't put you here just to consume the oxygen." Now, let
me exegete that briefly for a moment. (Laughter) Why are you all
laughing--I did go to seminary, now!
"The Lord didn't put you here just to consume the oxygen."
The operative word in the sentence here is just. Which is
sort of like the one where Moses and then later Jesus said "One does not
live by bread alone". You don't live by bread alone. So
that the operative word is alone--'cause you do need bread! But bread
by itself ain't enough. "Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow." Huh? Life is more than food...
But in this statement, "The Lord didn't put you here just to consume the
oxygen", just is the operative word, 'cause you do need oxygen! In fact,
the truth of the matter is, we are here in part to consume the oxygen.
Think about it now, when you inhale, what do you inhale? Oxygen! And when you
exhale, what do you exhale? Carbon dioxide! Oh, this is an educated crowd,
see? You exhale carbon dioxide. The entire animal world, if you will, inhales
oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide. The plant world, on the other hand, does
what? It takes *in* the carbon dioxide, and it *releases* oxygen.
Help me somebody--that's not an accident! This world has been created in a
symbiotic relationship so that we and the creation are in relationship--it
gives, we receive, we receive and then give. We were *made* to give *and* receive,
and life is lived when we give and receive, when we love and
are loved--(loud long applause) and we will find our life in that
giving and receiving.
Now let me bring this to a conclusion. (Laughter) The Hebrew word for
spirit--one of them--is ruach. Over there is
Dr. Jeffrey R--(?) He's responsible for all of this--he was one of my
teachers! But ruach and be translated, it can be
translated spirit, right? It also can be translated "wind", and it
can be translated "breath". Like "Breathe on me, breath of
God, fill me with life anew..." But, it occurs to me that breath has
something to do with oxygen. (Laughter) And breath has
something to do with life! And if that is the case, then the spirit of God is
not only the life of God, but the spirit of God is the source of all life,
and my Jesus in the New Testament, quoting Isaiah, said this, and I quote,
"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has annointed
me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the
captives, recovery of sight to the blind, restore liberty to all those who
are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord. That spirit is upon us,
and that spirit is the spirit that Jesus said follow me into. Follow me--and
I will make you more than you ever thought you could be! Follow me--(applause
drowing out some words) Follow me, and I will
show you a life of love, that hate cannot defeat. Follow me, and I will show
you a life of justice that injustice can *never* tear down. (Amen)
Follow me, and I will show you life that not even the power of death can take
away.
You shall receive power. We have already received power, for the Holy Spirit
has already come among us, and we are His gifts. So go forth. Witness to a
love that will not let you go. Witness to a compassion that knows no bounds.
Witness to a kingdom and a dream of God, where all of us can find life, and
hope, and happiness.
Don't be ashamed of that Gospel. And don't be afraid to stand up for that
kingdom. So, you go on out and be an Episcopal witness. You go on out and
take your little Episcopal Life
in your hand (laughter) and then go forth in this world and end
poverty, end hunger, end injustice, and war. So walk into this world and help
God help establish God's reign and God's kingdom in this world.
My soul is a witness for my Lord! (Amen!)
God bless you!
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