Sermon for 25th Pentecost
Swords into Plowshares
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Today is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, a war that has nearly been forgotten. At 11am on November 11th, 11-11-11, that terrible war ended. Hailed as the “Great War” and, naively, the “War to End All Wars,” World War I left 16 million dead across Europe and North America. Among its many horrors, this war introduced chemical warfare and, of course, in the end, was hardly the “War to End All Wars.” Church bells will ring around the USA to mark this important anniversary.
Even more forgotten is the worldwide flu epidemic of 1918 which killed 50 million people around the world. At one point in 1918 25% of the population of the United States had the flu. The 675,000 flu deaths in the USA were enough to reduce the life expectancy in our country for the next 12 years!
Today is also Veterans Day, a day in which we honor the men and women who have served our country in our military. Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I, hence the double observance today. Our former intern, Pastor Julie Kelly, schooled me to mark Veterans Day correctly – Veterans Day is a day to remember living veterans of military service, not those currently in the military, that’s Armed Forces Day, and not those who died in service to our country, that’s Memorial Day.
My original plan was to reflect on these significant anniversaries and speak with you about today’s Gospel lesson, the Bible story known as “The Widow’s Mite.” In it Jesus holds up the sacrifice of a widow who, while giving a little, gave all that she had, her last penny, to God. It is a story told by Jesus to, once again, condemn his opponents, the scribes and Pharisees. Today it is often used as a stewardship text to hold those of us who are not poor, which is nearly 100% of those listening to or reading this sermon, to hold us to accountability for how we share with others the many gifts of God in our lives.
That was my plan, and then this week happened, and you know the basics:
• A young, probably mentally ill veteran decided to kill people at a club near Thousand Oaks. Students from our California Lutheran University were among the injured. A recent CLU graduate was among the dead.
• Wildfires devastated California again, this time wiping out entire towns, this time getting very close to our homes. And these fires continue today.
This week, November 9, last Friday, also marked the 80th anniversary of “Kristallnacht,” that night in 1938 in Germany when Nazis burned synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes and schools and businesses and killed more than 100 Jews. It is a very sobering anniversary anytime, but especially coming two weeks after the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Mass shootings, those involving four or more victims now number 307 in 2018. Just think of that statistic for a minute, one for nearly each day in 2018. So many in fact that, like our faded World War I memories, many of us cannot remember more than a handful of these.
This was one of those weeks when I was tempted to put a sign on the church door, “worship cancelled because of a lack of the pastor’s faith.” I have all the feelings that many, if not most, of you have – not again, why, what can I/we do….
I was helped this week by the words of our synod bishop, the Rev. Dr. Guy Erwin, who wrote:
“We live in a culture full of violence, even violence as entertainment. We live in a culture in which mental illness is not recognized for the great problem it is, and those damaged by their experience of violence do not receive the help they need. We live in a world in which, increasingly, selfishness is promoted over the common good. And we are a nation awash in guns.”
Our bishop continued:
“I call on all Christians, and all who receive this message, to consider how we each can work to reduce violence in our society, to resist its glorification in the public forum, and to care more deeply for the welfare of those caught up in cycles of under-treated mental illness. I call on all of us to join in promoting a more peaceful society by connecting with neighbors and friends so that no one suffers alone.
“I ask for your prayers for peace and healing, but I ask also for you to take action in your neighborhoods and communities, in your political lives as well as your lives of faith, to fight the scourge of violence in our midst.”
The bishop concluded with the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
That is our role this week and every week, in small ways and large, to be peacemakers in our homes, work sites, neighborhoods and community. To work with others for sensible gun laws and more help for the mentally ill, especially our mentally ill veterans.
I love a video being shared widely on Facebook this week. In it two young African American men, comedians we are told, are seen helping an older white woman, who they have just seen paying for her gas with pennies, giving her some money and sharing kind words and hugs of support. The women is seen in tears of puzzlement and gratitude. She wonders why these strangers are helping her. “Sometimes you lose your faith,” the young men tell her. “Today we are here to restore it.
That is your call and my call this week. To restore our faith and the faith of others with our words and actions. To be the peacemakers in this world in little and large ways.
In her statement for Veterans Day, our ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton called on us all to remember the words, the promise, of Isaiah, “and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4).
May it be so.
Amen.
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sunday, November 11, 2018
