Lake Edge United Church of Christ

I am discouraged more often than I wish.

Each Sunday I join with you in prayer to God, "your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And yet all too often it becomes painfully clear that God's will is not being done on earth, and I grow dismayed.

Two Sundays ago, under the headline "Race May Decide Election in Wisconsin," an article appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal. A man who lives less than an hour away from dear old Madison was reflecting on whether or not he could vote for Barack Obama. Now, please don't mistake me, I am not campaigning for Obama. There are valid reasons for not doing so, and persons who make another choice can do so and still be worthy of respect. But this particular man was troubled by Obama's race, wondering aloud whether he could vote for a "colored" man, and voicing his need to be reassured that in governing, Obama would not play favorites and grant special privileges to the "coloreds." The man's dilemma thus described, the reporter moved on to discuss the latest polling, either unaware of the outrageousness of such comments or worse, untroubled by them. How is it that in the year of our Lord 2008, people still find it apparently acceptable to speak of "colored" persons, as if the normal state of skin color is white and everything else somehow lesser? How is it that in the year of our Lord 2008 people apparently feel that it's OK to worry if a "colored" person would be prejudiced to favor those who look like him without realizing their own inherent prejudice in speaking in such ways, apparently oblivious to the fact that "white" leaders have been privileging "white" people right along? How is it that in the year of our 2008, a news paper reporter for a great metropolitan paper believes that overt racism of this type can be passed along without comment, as if it were somehow acceptable speech in a public forum? How is it that we can still be mired in such awful, hurtful suspicion about a physical characteristic like skin color? Is not our republic based on the principle that all people are created equal? Have we not fought a Civil War and abolished slavery and engaged in a movement for civil rights that was by turns turbulent and inspiring but that settled once and for all that in this land of ours racial differences are no longer polarizing?

It appears not. Racism continues it cold grip on the very worst portions of ourselves, the places where we have our deepest fears and our greatest suspicions. Racism is not dead nor does it sleep. God's will is not done on earth as it is in heaven, and I grow discouraged.

This past week, after nearly a year of dilly-dallying and denial that anything is going wrong, Congress at last passed legislation to address the home mortgage loan crises. Tens of thousands of families have already lost their homes, and thousands more will lose them before the law takes effect, but one gets the unmistakable impression that what matters most to our leaders is not the families who've lost so much and who now scramble to find other housing before ending up on the streets, but rather that the shareholders of the great mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not suffer losses. The bail out is first and foremost for the very lenders whose unregulated and unrestricted practices enticed so many into mortgages that could not truly be afforded in the long run. I suppose that the situation is more complex than this, and I would agree that there is responsibility to be shared by persons who let themselves be seduced into loans they could not ultimately afford. But again and again it appears that when the public trough is opened, it is not the hungry who are first fed, but rather those who are already well fed, and who long to get even fatter. And what is your share and mine of the bail out of Fannie and Freddie? It's over two hundred dollars per household in the country. People already struggling to pay their mortgage are now taxed to benefit the people who hold those mortgages. I suspect that Bob Dylan got it right forty years ago: "Steal a little and they'll throw you in jail," he sang, "steal a lot and they make you a king."

I watch as again and again our political system responds to the rich and the powerful, and I fear that God's will is not done on earth as it is in heaven, and I grow discouraged.

All the time now, two or three times a week on average, I get calls, as the pastor of the church, from our friends working for agencies that are trying to meet the needs of the poor and the powerless in our communities. Time after time, the story is nearly the same: they're looking for help for a family who is falling behind on their rent, or on their power bill, and thus is in danger of becoming homeless. The reasons are strikingly similar: a medical emergency has come up, and the family has chosen to buy essential medicine with the rent money, or a job has been lost, and though a new one has been found, it'll be two weeks before the first paycheck comes in, or the high cost of food and gasoline has forced choices upon people which are never any good. Now, for the sake of a few dozen dollars, or a couple of hundred, the family is about to be put out into the street. We all know, it is an indisputable fact, that to get established in an apartment costs a couple of thousand dollars: first and last month's rent and a security deposit. But once a family loses their home over a couple of hundred dollars their problem has become a problem of a couple of thousand dollars and they're ten times worse off than they were before. Our social worker friends call churches because there is no other place to turn, no other place can provide the few dollars that can make a huge difference. Only problem is, the need is greater than all the churches can meet. And so I help, but only until my resources are gone, and then I have to say no, and another family is on the street. What an odd situation: the average American now lives in a house three times the size of the one he or she grew up in, but in the richest country in the world, people become homeless for the want of a half month's rent.

Every week I am reminded of our society's true values, and homelessness is acceptable, and I see that God's will is not done on earth as it is in heaven, and I grow discouraged.

And so I come here, to worship, to crack open the odd world of scripture and to listen again to the Good News that Jesus brought, and I am not disappointed.

The kingdom of God, Jesus said, is like yeast, a tiny amount of which gets mixed into a large quantity of flour, and, when the conditions are right, transforms the dead lump of dough into light and delicious bread. I've done some baking in my time, and learned a good bit about yeast. It's one of those things that seems dead, when left to itself. It's inert. Just sits there. It can keep for a good while, if properly protected, just sitting there, pure potential. Yeast becomes useful, however, when it's mixed with some important ingredients. It needs water to live, water that is neither too hot, which will kill the yeast, nor too cold, which will keep it from working. And it needs sugar to eat, and the by product of its eating is what produces the rise that is the difference between crackers and bread. And it needs flour too, an environment conducive to growth and that is ready to be transformed. Yeast is an amazing thing, inert by itself, but when brought into harmonious contact with the right circumstances, it becomes transformative, changing the very character of itself and its environment.

And the Good News, Jesus says, is that the reign or rule of God in human life is like yeast. It's in scripture, but until the book is opened, the Good News is inert, just sits there. It's in this church, but until the people arrive to sing and pray, to listen and share, it is inert, just sits there. It's in your heart, but until you remember that it's there, it's inert, just sits there. But when it gets triggered, when people gather and open scripture together, when they gather and open their hearts and minds to God and the presence of God's spirit, when people recognize that things as they are are frequently out of touch with what God would want them to be and so the people open their hearts and minds to grow and change, then the Good News, the Kingdom of heaven, the reign of God in our world is no longer inert, but becomes a living, breathing possibility, one that can transform everything around it.

Now listen, it is easy for us to get discouraged when we think that we have to transform the world ourselves. When we think that we have to single handedly address every manifestation of racism and create equality, then we get discouraged because the problem is too big, we can't possibly fix everything. And when we consider that our governmental institutions most often are set up precisely to protect the interests of those who are already comfortably wealthy, then we get discouraged because how can we change the government by ourselves? And when we consider that our society is so poorly organized that for the want of a few dollars families can lose their homes, we get discouraged because our resources are not unlimited and what we can often contribute feels like little more than a drop in the bucket. But listen! It's not our job to be the yeast that transforms everything. The yeast is the powerful presence of God. Our job is not to be the fix, but to keep the conditions right so that the yeast can do its work.

We are not called to fix racism. But we are called to denounce it when we hear it, and to insist that we can do better. We can declare what we know to be true: God does not favor one race over another, and neither should we. We are called to help create an atmosphere in which racism dies for lack of nourishment, and equality thrives because we've insisted that it must.

We are not called to fix the abuses of government. But we are called to point out when the rich are favored at the expense of the poor, and to insist that we can do better. We can declare what we know to be true: God has consistently called us to attend to the needs of the poor and the powerless, the hungry and the sick, the imprisoned and the outcast. We are called to be clear about what we believe God yearns for, and to create an atmosphere in which the poor are never forgotten, and have advocates.

We are not called to fix homelessness. But we are called to point out inherent nonsense when we see it, and to denounce the holes in our safety net that put families and children at risk of the streets. We can declare what we know to be truth: God has made clear that hospitality is in harmony with God's will for us.

My friends, we cannot afford to be discouraged. Our world cannot survive if we grow silent and timid. We are called to open scripture and gather together and open our hearts and minds to create the conditions in which the yeasty and transformative power of God can thrive and grow,speeding up the day when all God's children regardless of age or race or sex or creed or orientation or economic status or national origin or physical or mental handicap are understood to be equal in the Kingdom of God, and when God's will is done. On earth. As it is in heaven. Amen.