Community Christian Church of Springfield, MO
Roger Ray, pastor
Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.' 4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And I said: 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: 'Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.' 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I; send me!'
The state of Texas has experienced unprecedented flooding in the past week with nearly all of its major cities facing either flooded rivers or flash flooding from heavy rains. An image on the internet showed houses and cars standing in several feet of water and the caption read, "Why don't you try cutting taxes on the rich and then letting the free market fix this?"
The earth, speaking globally, is very slowly warming. That warming is causing some shifts in weather patterns that actually makes some parts of the globe abnormally cool and is causing movements in the atmosphere that seems to be preventing rain on the west coast and brining uncommon rain fall in Texas and Oklahoma, along with the often discussed rise in the sea level that will eventually cover most of Florida, New York City, Boston and many other places that we would really rather not give back to the seas.
There are long-term solutions to our environmental challenges.... But, to date, our nation and much of the rest of the world remain unwilling to work on solutions. There is not Republican and Democratic science. There is just good science and junk science.
However, there are attempts at making science partisan. The Republican control states of Florida and North Carolina have, by act of their legislature, made it illegal for state employees to use the term, "Global Climate Change" or any of its corollaries such as "global warming," and "sea level rise." They have to say things like "nuisance flooding." Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas, have all taken similarly science denying state policies.
C. S. Lewis made the helpful observation that a lunatic cannot blot out the sun by writing "darkness" on his cell wall. Refusing to deal with the facts, refusing to say the words, like Scarlet in "Gone with the Wind" saying, "I'll worry about that tomorrow," is just deadly ignorant.... Literally.
However, even though it is somewhat satisfying to see Texas officials who voted against funding for Sandy relief just three years ago, now demanding federal relief in light of their much less devastating flooding in Texas, it is not helpful simply to make fun of their hypocrisy.
In this scripture lesson Jennifer read fro us from Isaiah, in a vision the young prophet feels that he is being called upon to confront the hypocrisy, the injustice, the evil within his culture but he objects saying, "I am a man of unclean lips who lives among a people of unclean lips." Which is to say, "Sure, we're pretty messed up right now... we have a huge income and capital disparity between the ruling class and the working class... most of our food is produced in near slave-like conditions and our foreign policy is likely to get us killed but, I am a part of the society that has created all of these problems.... Who am I to speak?"
You don't typically think of the words "humble" or "modest" when you think of Isaiah or, for that matter, any of the Old Testament prophets. Preaching, in and of itself, is all the evidence you need to accuse someone of arrogance. Expecting hundreds of people to sit quietly while I tell them what I think about matters of utmost importance is a narcissistic exercise that could only be trumped by printing your own picture on currency and yet, this is what a prophet is supposed to do.
But I appreciate his modesty, even if it was only in a vision and he was only telling it about himself. The fact remains, Isaiah identified himself as being a part of the same corrupt society that he was being sent to confront. And that is a helpful reminder for all of us.
Late night talk shows and news-parody shows have trained us all to be rather snarky in our conversation about politics as if we were all trying out to take the place of Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart and I'm especially guilty of that because I have this 20 minute weekly gig in which I want to appear to be simultaneously persuasive and also terribly witty.
I have good friends who regularly try to get me to tone down my rhetoric, insisting that there is guilt on both sides of the political divide and no progress can be made until we meet in the middle. I get that.... I and we are a people of unclean lips who live in a society of unclean lips but the offenses are not anything like equal and false equivalencies don't help us to get at the truth.
My politics are based on my approach to spirituality and ethics. I know that a lot of conservative religious people would say the same thing. The right wing of religion, whether your are Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, tends to resist equal rights for women, or the rights of women to manage their own reproductive life... they tend to be very pro-business and anti-union, ... they usually oppose gay rights and they are willing to edit both science and history to suit their own purposes.
Those of us on the religious left, again, of all three major western faiths, take nearly opposite views on civil rights and poverty issues. That does not, however, make me a very good Democrat. I sometimes say that I hail from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party because it seems to me that the party, as a whole, has been willing to talk the talk but then walk the military and corporate walk.
I was very surprised the first time that we lost church members because I was critical of our Democratic president. I would never assume that a prophetic pulpit owed any kind of fealty to a political party but clearly that is not a universally shared opinion. It appears to be one thing that Republicans and Democrats do have in common, they are not very good at being self-critical.
I am very critical of the plan to build a new pipe-line over major aquifers of the United States in order to pump tar sands out of Canada.... Not just because of the environmental risks presented to American water sources but because we really should leave that nasty carbon sequestered in the ground.
But, I did drive a gas powered car to church today and as much as I am opposed to slavery, I am wearing a suit that was manufactured in slavery-like conditions in South Korea. I had English tea at my home this morning but I know the tea wasn't grown in England and I'm equally sure that I would be appalled by the circumstances under which it was grown and harvested.
I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a nation of people with unclean lips. I suspect that I am employed by a church comprised of people with unclean lips. None of us are innocent and yet we must not be paralyzed by that fact. Isaiah, in his vision, endured an angel pressing a hot coal to his lips as a sign of purification so that he could then speak the truth to power.
Minus the hot coals to the lips, that is our job too. What do you believe are the most important issues our society must face and solve in the next decade?
You may have a somewhat different list but I would say that the biggest challenges we must solve are:
1) Income disparity
2) Dependence on fossil fuels
3) And, a foreign policy based on maintaining a military empire
But what do we talk about most in the news? Benghazi... Hillary's email server... gay marriage.... The sexual peccadillos of politicians... and mostly we talk about which candidate will be allowed to serve the interests of corporations and the super rich next. Do you see the problem here?
As long as the media keeps us focused on the trivial and political parties both engage in dog whistle manipulation of voters then the poor will become more impoverished, the corporation that make money off of wars, medicines, food, and banking services will continue to run our government for their own benefit, while the earth itself becomes uninhabitable and the concepts of freedom and individual prosperity will become matters of history.
We have been a part of the society of unclean lips but we can be the prophetic voice that guides our path towards a more peaceful, sustainable and just society. If we fall in love with the truth, and find the courage to step out of the system the world can be changed.
