Lectionary 28 Proper 23A
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
October 15, 2023
Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
I’m thinking of those times in traffic. Those times when I am stopped in traffic. Those times when I am stopped in traffic and all I can see for miles ahead of me is brake lights, bright and red and lit up. And we crawl along, not knowing the cause of this delay. And the minutes pass. And then things start to pick up – just a little. And then we get to the spot where traffic really begins to start to get back to normal.
And we realize that it was an accident. And we assess the damage and the number of vehicles with flashing lights and the number of damaged cars. And we realize that the cause of our miles-long back up was this accident – on the other side of the interstate. The well-known “gapers’ block.” And we drive by – trying to take it all in.
Perhaps this last week has been a bit of “gaper’s block” for you as we watch the events in the Mid-East explode from a long smolder into a raging flame. And perhaps you too have said, “Enough. I can’t watch it anymore.” Many of us remember the evening news with Walter Cronkite when we got the latest update on the War in Vietnam. For a brief few minutes we saw the black and white maps showing the location of the latest coverage, a few seconds of actual footage from the battle fields.
Or perhaps your frame of reference is World War II when the coverage was even more brief. Certainly nothing on television – who had one of them? Instead, most news came over the radio and there were those news leads that folks saw when they went to the movies at the local cinema.
But here we are now in a 24/7 news cycle. No matter what time of the day or night or even midnight, we can turn on the TV to our favored news channel and see live footage of the latest news all of which now is focused on the flames burning in the Middle East.
Our text today is our second reading, that from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, especially verse 8 of chapter 4: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things.
Some years ago there was a popular song that, to be honest with you, bugged the be-jeebies out of me. “Don’t worry. Be happy.”
I checked the lyrics using our friend “google” and found that the phrase “don’t worry be happy occurs about 28 times in this song.
Now there is this song I wrote
I hope you learned it note for note, like good little children
Don’t worry, be happy
Now listen to what I said, in your life expect some trouble
But when you worry, you make it double
But don't worry, be happy, be happy now.
So annoying to me. Perhaps because of whatever burden I was carrying at the time, perhaps there had been just too many times in my life when Pollyanna-like goodness didn’t carry the day, perhaps because, unlike Annie of Broadway fame, I just didn’t really see how the sun would come out tomorrow.
Don’t worry. Be happy. A mere bromide. Bah humbug.
I spent three weeks in Israel in January, 2006 and I learned so very much. Things that went beyond my previous casting of things into black and white, right and wrong. I learned some of the intricacies of decades old conflicts and disagreements. Now let me be clear, I am not expert in this area – far from it. But I do want to share with you some of what I have come to understand. The most important of these is that the current conflict is between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is not the same as the Palestinian people.
As you know, this congregation is part of the larger ELCA. And through this, we are connected with other churches here in the United States –not only Lutheran but also Methodist and Presbyterian and Episcopal and others. And also through our connection with the ELCA, we have relationships with other Lutheran bodies around the world. And we are familiar with some of them – Lutheran Disaster Response, Lutheran World Relief. There is also the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, similarly with Tanzania, with Norway and others. One of those others is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, with congregations in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and elsewhere in the Middle East. It is the only indigenous Arabic speaking Lutheran church in the world. Its roots are in the mid-19th century when German missionaries came to Palestine. The ELCJHL serves Christians in the Middle East, many if not most of whom are Palestinian. It has issued these statements on the war.
To all those who have been reaching out to the ELCJHL with words of empathy, concern, and prayer, thank you. We are devastated by the difficult realities that we, and our neighbors, are encountering; and your words of support and comfort mean so much. This is an unprecedented time for us; and we are leaning on our faith in Jesus Christ to remain hopeful for a future of peace. Still, even as we trust in God for the future, we remain extremely worried about further escalation and deterioration in the present situation.
We are also grateful that so many of you have already asked how you can help. As Christians, we take seriously our calling to be healers and peacemakers; and we plan to do what we can as a church to deescalate the situation and assist the victims of this conflict. We are currently assessing the situation and evaluating how we can intervene. We will be in touch with our partners soon to explore how we can work together, and what support we will need.
In the meantime, we invite your continued prayers for justice and peace, as we strive to follow the wisdom of our scriptures: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. ” Proverbs 3:5.
Yours in Christ,
Bishop Sani-Ibrahim Azar
And we are part of the Lutheran World Federation which includes a major medical center, the August Victoria Hospital Today, August Victoria Hospital provides specialty care for Palestinians from across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with services including a cancer center, a dialysis unit, and a pediatric center. In 2016, it inaugurated a bone marrow transplantation unit. It is the second-largest hospital in East Jerusalem, as well as being the sole remaining specialized-care hospital located in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. It runs 120 in-patient beds and treats a large number of outpatients, including children, who come in for dialysis and radiation treatment.
An ecumenical organization of 13 leaders of Christian churches, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Christian Churches in Jerusalem has also spoken out condemning the violence, particularly that which targets civilians.
As custodians of the Christian faith, deeply rooted in the Holy Land, we stand in solidarity with the people of this region, who are enduring the devastating consequences of continued strife. Our faith, which is founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ, compels us to advocate for the cessation of all violent and military activities that bring harm to both Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
We unequivocally condemn any acts that target civilians, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, or faith. Such actions go against the fundamental principles of humanity and the teachings of Christ, who implored us to "love your neighbour as yourself" {Mark 12:31).
Even though what is happening in the Middle East may seem very far away, we are connected with them not only through our common humanity but also through our Lutheran church that has a strong presence there. In fact, Pastor Khader El-Yateem, one of the assistants to our Bishop Suarez and a friend of this congregation, was born in Bethlehem, emigrating to the United States in the early 1990’s. Pastor Khader has deep ties to the Palestinian Christian community in Israel and in Gaza.
And, our presiding bishop, Elizabeth has written this letter:
Dear church,
As Lutherans, we are accustomed to holding tension between two truths. Thus the ELCA denounces the egregious acts of Hamas, acts that have led to unspeakable loss of life and hope. At the same time the ELCA denounces the indiscriminate retaliation of Israel against the Palestinian people, both Christian and Muslim.
For the past week we have borne witness to the horrors of the escalating crisis between Israel and Hamas. We also watch a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as Israel blocks food, water, fuel and medical supplies and as airstrikes continue to cause unbearable civilian casualties ahead of a justannounced ground assault. We see Israelis and families around the world in the agonizing wait for word about the fate of loved ones killed or taken hostage by Hamas. We are in anguish, grieving and praying for all people who are living in trauma, fear and uncertainty.
Among us are Palestinian Lutherans who are fearful for their families, their communities and their homeland. In our communities we have Jewish and Muslim neighbors, who are also facing the horrors of this crisis and its impact on their loved ones.
It is difficult to find words that suffice in the complexity of this moment, and in the web of relationships that bind us together, as church, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and our interreligious partners. Yet God has called us to be a people who stand with others amid suffering.
We must also call a thing a thing. The power exerted against all Palestinian people — through the occupation, the expansion of settlements and the escalating violence — must be called out as a root cause of what we are witnessing. We are committed to our long-standing accompaniment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.
The God who liberates us calls us to be a liberating witness. May it be so.
In Christ,
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
As we hear through these communications and as we see whenever we watch the news, the situation in the Holy Land is dire and threatens to get even worse as tensions rise on the border with Lebanon. What then shall we do?
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things.
This is not a mere “Don’t worry, be happy” exhortation. Rather, in the midst of all that burdens us, in the midst of all that is so violent and shocking, in the midst of all of this we are to let our hearts and minds rest on that which is honorable, just, pure; that which is commendable. How do we do this?
We gather here Sunday upon Sunday to be nourished with Word and Sacrament and our fellowship together. We are brave enough to look at the results of the war, to see the suffering, without becoming a gaper, and then are able to bear witness to what we have seen. We are inquisitive and try to understand the history of the Holy Land from multiple perspectives and avoid stereotyping people involved in this war. We pray and pray and pray some more.
St Nikolai Church in Leipzig Germany behind the Berlin Wall. In September 1989 the pastor began regular weekly prayer for freedom from Communist rule. The praying crowd grew and grew into so many that the crowds stretched out into the streets and by October 9th, 70,000 people gathered to pray, no violence, just solidarity in prayer. And on November 9th, the wall came down.
We will post some resources on the website for your reference and use.
Let us pray. Lord, we come to you seeking your peace for your people in your world. We feel so far away yet we see the suffering every day. Help us to see but not gape. Show us what you would have us do to help. We join our prayers with those of unknown number around the world. Help us to keep our minds set on that which is true and honorable and just. Show us Lord how we can be instruments of your peace.
In the name of Christ, Amen.
