1 Samuel 2:1-10 Hannah prayed
and said,
“My heart rejoices in God; my
strength is exalted in God. I am laughing at my rivals, because I rejoice in
God’s salvation. There is none holy like God, there is no rock like our God. Don’t
talk so very proudly, don’t let arrogance come from your mouth; for God has
knowledge, and by God actions are weighed. The bows of the
mighty are broken, and the feeble put on strength. Those who
had plenty of food have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were
hungry are now filled and hunger no more. The barren woman has borne seven
children, but she who has many children is forlorn. God kills
and brings to life; God brings down to the depths of darkness and lifts up
again. God makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. God raises
the poor from the dust and lifts the
needy from the ash heap; they sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For
the pillars of the earth belong to God, and the world stands on them. God will guard those who are faithful; but
the wicked stumble about in the dark, for not by might can anyone live. God’s
adversaries shall be broken to pieces; God will thunder in heaven. God will
make right of all things; strength will be given to God’s king, the
anointed One will be set above all.”
Mark
13:1-8
As he
walked away from the Temple, one of his disciples said, “Teacher, look at that
stonework! Those buildings!”
Jesus said,
“You’re impressed by this grandiose architecture? There’s not a stone in the
whole works that is not going to end up in a heap of rubble.”
Later, as he was sitting on Mount Olives in full view of the Temple,
Peter, James, John, and Andrew got him off by himself and asked, “Tell us, when
is this going to happen? What sign will we get that things are coming to a
head?” Jesus began, “Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many
leaders are going to show up with forged identities claiming, ‘I’m the One.’
They will deceive a lot of people. When you hear of wars and rumored wars, keep
your head and don’t panic. This is routine history, and no sign of the end.
Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Earthquakes will
occur in various places. There will be famines. But these things are nothing
compared to what’s coming.”
Yes, this is my red Starbucks cup. It is going to sit on my desk
as a reminder of a few pertinent truths.
Over the last couple of weeks, there has
been a firestorm back and forth on Facebook, about – get this – the colour of
the new Starbucks cups for the Christmas season, and how they don’t represent
Christmas. The fanatic pseudo-Christian pastor who started this stated that
Starbucks is part of the War on Christmas. He said the cups don’t have any
snowflakes or Christmas designs, they aren’t Christmas-y enough. He said they
are “taking the Christmas out of Christmas”. Some people have gone into the
stores and insisted that servers write “Merry Christmas” on their cups.
In response, a whole lot of people, me
included – have been responding with a defense of Starbucks as a business, not
in the work of promoting any faith stance, but a general holiday; that
Starbucks cups have never had any kind of Christian motif on them anyway; that
Starbucks DOES sell Advent calendars, and Christmas coffee. Starbucks has also
been collaborating with local charitable organisations in different places,
providing food. Now, Starbucks food is pretty classy – I can recommend the
cranberry dream bar, for those who love gooey frosting-y things.
The fuss was started by Josh Feuerstein, a video rant from a self-described “disciple of
Jesus”. He’s been doing things like this for years. In this case, he claims
that Starbucks hates Jesus. How Jesus has become associated with snowflakes and
reindeer and Santa and all that other stuff isn’t clear. Starbucks
"hates Jesus," Feuerstein ranted, because the multi-billion dollar
international coffee conglomerate decided to change its Holiday cups from red
with winter logos, to red. Just plain red. Which makes Jesus cry.
He is also the guy who phoned a
Florida bakery to order a cake with the message: “We Do Not Support Gay
Marriage.” When the bakery refused to fill the order, he and his followers
cried discrimination and harassed the small business until it was forced to close
temporarily.
Feuerstein’s
extremism is part of his public persona. Appearing on CNN last week, he says he
knows America is a Christian nation because Barack Obama had to pretend to be Christian
to get elected. He is a sometime pastor, strongly anti-gay, a racist, and a gun
nut. And it’s clear he has no idea what the Gospel message is.
Just a couple of examples of the
lash back at Feuerstein: three Starbucks
cups, and a photo of a homeless man sleeping on a bench, and the caption says
“If you’re more offended by these, (pointing to the cups) than by this
(pointing to the man), then you’re part of the problem.”
Then there’s one of someone giving
an African child a simple cup of clean water, and the caption is “Yeah, that
Starbucks cup is a real problem.”
So how does this in any way connect
to the two texts this morning?
Hannah is a woman who has been
unable to have a baby. She is married to Elkanah whose second wife, Peninnah, has
children. Hannah is ridiculed by Penninah, and even though Elkanah loved
Hannah, he gave her lesser gifts on the days of sacrifice in the temple because
she had no children. Hannah sits in the
temple and prays and prays to God to give her just one child. And the miracle happens. Hannah
becomes pregnant.
And we hear Hannah sing, a song which
we will hear again in Advent, when Mary learns she is pregnant, when Zechariah
sings of finally having seen what had been foretold. And we hear it again when
Jesus talks about how the realm of God will be.
The last will be first and the first
will be last. Now, we tend to read these things as if they are all carried out
by God with no human interaction. So we have to put Hannah’s song into context
– the God of the early peoples was a God who made things happen for good or
ill. But that isn’t what I hear in this
text at all. What I hear is a text about complete reversals of fortune. Hannah
is speaking about God’s realm, where those who are hungry are fed, and the rich
have nothing; where those who are considered the dregs of society are lifted
up, and those who pushed others down and oppressed them are now in a different
position.
I’d like to read you some of that
text again, but a different version: “The weapons of the strong are smashed to
pieces, while the weak are infused with fresh strength. Those who were well-fed
are out begging in the streets for crusts, while those who were hungry are
getting second helpings. God puts people on their feet again, and rekindles
burnt-out lives with fresh hope, restoring dignity and respect to their lives.”
In 2013 the first cast was installed in the United States, at the St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Davidson, North Carolina. The rector, Rev. David Buck, says "This is a relatively affluent church, to be honest, and we need to be reminded ourselves that our faith expresses itself in active concern for the marginalized of society". In an interview he said "We believe that that's the kind of life Jesus had. He was, in essence, a homeless person.”
For me, this is where the hoopla over a red coffee cup collides with both texts. What is really important is not whether a secular business organisation opts for a plain red cup; what is really important is not the big fancy buildings which eventually will be gone. What is really important is what we do to others and the world. What is really important are those people on our streets, in our cities, homeless and hungry; drowning in a frantic run to get away from war, lining up to come to a place where they can just have a life. The texts are both about complete reversals of what we think the world is to be, an upside-down version of how we define our world. In the Mark passage Jesus says “You have no idea what’s coming.” And it’s true this is a piece of apocalyptic literature as we read on. But it’s with a point – that for all that humanity tries to do to hold power, it will be turned upside down. The realm of God will come, where the hungry will be fed, the thirsty given good clean water to drink instead of sewage, where women don’t go missing, where homes and work can be found so that all people have some dignity; a place where the human worth of every person is the first and most important thing; a place where people don’t end up living on the streets, or needing food banks, or handouts; a place where there is no bombing or killing.
It’s too easy to get sidetracked by things like the colour of a cup, and then persecuting people out of our own fear. It’s just too easy – and maybe that’s why it happens. Really turning the world upside down, tearing down the walls of injustice and oppression, and treating all people as if they have value and worth – is really really hard work most of the time. But it is the realm of God.
And Hannah sings that it happens, that somehow the wrongs inflicted on the world are reversed and put right; she offers a caution about making judgments, of ridiculing others, because we don’t know when fortunes will be reversed, when one who is wealthy will lose all, or when one who has been poor and homeless will be able to make a start again. We don’t know, we can’t know. Through Hannah’s song the imbalances of the world are put to rights.
Well, I got really worked up over this one, because there is a side of me which does make judgment; I read the trash about the cup and the war on Christmas and think “Seriously??? Really??? Is that all you have to worry about??? Why are you so afraid??? Why don’t you get out and really follow Jesus, even in the simple act of offering a cup of coffee to someone who really needs it, and yes even in a red cup.”
A cup offered to someone who needs. A simple thing, but it can be so much. In ‘A Christmas Carol’, the Ghost of Christmas Present offers Scrooge a cup – filled with the milk of human kindness. Instead of seeing the cup as a war on something, why not see it as the opposite – the very thing which Hannah sings about, the very thing Jesus makes reference to – a reversal of what is now, a reversal of all those things we consider permanent. Why not see the cup as the vehicle of making change? Offer someone who could really use it, a simple cup of coffee – and go from there.
Author Maren Tirabassi, whose books I read and who has become a friend via Facebook, is a gentler soul than I, less harsh in judgment. She has written a poem, and I believe catches in it the needs of many people, and how a cup of coffee can be a catalyst for change.
“This is my Christmas cup of coffee.
Yes, it is in a red cup and I like it rather strong
so I can make it very sweet and light and I want to sip it slowly
because today someone is willing to listen to me,
and hear any loneliness, any grief, any sorrow.
The star shines in kind eyes, not really in either
the brand name of the store, (though I smile)
or the words of a story, told out in pageant, sermon,
or so-called live nativity.
And the stable is this coffee shop –
for it always happens in some latte or manger
where no one ever expects something holy to be born.
There are so many people
watching over their laptops by night,
and, while my friend listens to me,
I eavesdrop on all their angels.”
May it be so.
Sources:
2.
Rev. Maren Tirabassi, Pastor, Union Church of Madbury
(United Church of Christ), New Hampshire.
No comments:
Post a Comment