Dreaming in Color
Ezra 4: 1-4; Revelation
7: 9-10; 15-17
Sermon preached by the
Rev. Tony Aja
2008 Moderators’ Conference
Louisville, KY, November 21-23
[Posted here on 12-5-08, with the kind permission of the
Rev. Tony Aja.]
Click here
for a Presbyterian News Service summary report on this sermon.
And click
here for some background on the issue of "a new Presbyterian
Establishment."
The people of God and their descendants
had been living in exile and oppression. And now they were allowed to
return to their homeland with the blessings of the government. They
needed to restore their community by recuperating a sense of religious
identity and stability. In order to do this they had to rebuild their
temple to re-establish proper worship.
And then some folks from the
neighborhood offered their help. They said that they also worshipped God
and they wanted a part in the rebuilding of the temple.
Basically these new neighbors were
saying: “Hey, we also have engineers and bricklayers and carpenters and
stone masons and artists and we can help build this temple for the glory
of our God ...”
You would think that the returned
exiles would have welcomed the offer with open arms. But the text is
quite clear. The answer from the leaders was succinct and to the point:
“You shall have no part with us in building a house to our God; but we
alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel...”
“We are the chosen people. God even
gave us a Book of Order! It’s only ten sentences long but it works for
us!”
These folks who approached the
returning exiles were the amharetz - the “people of the land.” We
don’t know exactly who these people were. They may have been descendants
of the original inhabitants of the land, perhaps even part of the tribes
of Israel also. They were of mixed race and ancestry. Some scholars say
they were the precursors of the Samaritans, and thus this may explain
the enmity between them and the Jews in Jesus’ time.
Using a little “hermeneutical
suspicion,” I humbly see this as a story where a group of people found
themselves in power and used that power against others because they were
different.
God may have given them an opportunity
to bring about the Shalom community and be a “blessing to all nations”
like they were supposed to do, but they rejected that opportunity.
Friends, in the Presbyterian Church
(USA) we have been challenged to grow our churches. We are called of God
to build or rebuild our congregations, not necessarily with brick, stone
and mortar, but to rebuild nonetheless. We are called to demonstrate to
the world the Shalom community described in Revelation, when people from
all the nations and walks of life come together to give praises to God;
when finally justice and inclusiveness and peace are established.
But - Who is going to rebuild our
church? Well, in order to do this we need to understand how things are
changing around us.
On the one hand, our denomination is
approximately still 94% white and English speaking. Moreover, our
members are, compared to most people in our country, quite wealthy in
economic terms.
On the other hand, the country is
becoming more and more diverse with peoples from non-white, non-English
speaking countries flocking to our shores.
In a few years this country will
reflect a truly multi-cultural, pluralistic society, thanks mostly to
immigration. Projections by demographers predict that in only a few
years white Anglos will be one more minority.
Actually “They” are already here! More
than one million people became U.S. citizens during fiscal 2008, the
largest number in 100 years! The number of naturalization applications
double to 1.4 million in 2007.
African-Americans and Native-Americans
have been here for a long time, but they are still sparsely represented
in our churches and positions of leadership.
Also, the very fabric of our society,
including the traditional concepts of family and gender, is also
changing. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider and
wider. While some of us are getting richer, there are many more that are
getting poorer, especially in our ethnic ghettoes and rural areas.
So the pool of folks who historically
have helped build this denomination is becoming smaller, being
substituted by people with different languages and accents and skin
colors, empty wallets and even other life styles. They also want to
worship God.
Unfortunately our church is still a
little bit behind the times. Irony: Secular and business world ahead of
church; bilingual signs, voice mail, web pages. Black and Latino
cultures permeate and influence our society.
Our nation just elected the first
multicultural president by a multicultural coalition. President-elect
Obama will be the pastor of this mega church called America, to quote my
youngest son Bryan. We cannot dismiss the symbolism that this represents
to the world.
In spite of all this, 11:00 o’clock
Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour of the week. If the
church is called to take leadership and demonstrate the kingdom of God
will all of its inclusiveness and justice for all, we may not be doing
our job too well.
So, in light of all these dynamics
present in our society, what kind of leadership is needed for the
Presbyterian Church in the 21st Century?
You probably have heard experts talk
about this. Diana Butler-Bass says that leaders of the church must be
nimble, creative and risk takers over just merely technocrats.
Of course, that means that church
leaders must adapt to the changes in our society and culture. I submit
humbly to seminary presidents that besides teaching the biblical
languages to prospective pastors we should also teach the languages
spoken in our school systems such as such as Spanish, Korean and others.
Moreover, besides exposing seminary
students to the theologies of dead white men, the basic curriculum
should include the liberation theologies coming from Latin America, Asia
and Africa.
And even if we don’t speak those other
languages or understand their theologies, at least church leaders should
understand the basic issues related to the needs and passions of those
neighbors who may be different from us. We don’t have to be
multicultural in our personas to be multicultural! By studying and
understanding the issues in our pluralistic society and by developing
relationships we can begin to see the face of Jesus in others.
The leaders of the returned exiles in
the Ezra narrative were well meaning but short-sighted. They developed a
theology of rejection. We are called to create a theology of
inclusiveness. I call it a “color-sighted theology.”
We are called by Jesus Christ to enter
into the “participatory eschatology” that Jesus came to inaugurate that
should lead us to the vision of Revelation. We need to prepare the way
for people of all nations and walks of life to join us in the building
of the church and in the worship of our God.
God wants a church that reflects
creation in all of its colorful glory. Yes, all of its colorful glory
because God makes no mistakes and everything God has created is
beautiful and clean and exciting!
God’s Church is the Church for
everyone. God’s church is the church of the refugee and immigrant; the
poor and the welfare mother or father; the teenager gang member or on
drugs; the alcoholic, the old man or woman on a fixed income, the gay
couple down the street -- and they all want to help us build the church
of Jesus Christ!
They are really “the people of the
land,” God’s land, not ours! We must continue to move toward a theology
that affirms, celebrates, and encourages diversity.
Friends, we need fresh ideas and new
music and different styles of worship and new names for our God of love
and grace, our God of inclusiveness. This is the God who, a long time
ago, chose to partake bread with us, “the people of the land” called
earth.
Who is going to build the church? Are
we going to answer that question with a theology of rejection that leads
to enmity and segregation, or by a theology of full inclusiveness that
leads to the vision of God’s kingdom?
