Cool the Hot Wind of Hatred

 

What a terrible week. 

Wednesday there was a shooting at a high school...an assassination of podcaster and far-right provocateur Charlie Kirk...and only blocks from my house...there were two women stabbed in the park by a man who then jumped in the holding pond and drowned. 

The Kirk assassination has dominated the news. And what was disturbing was how fast those on the right went from 0 to 60 in no time, accusing Democrats and transgender people of being responsible for this single shot to the neck that killed Kirk in front of an outdoor audience of three thousand Utah college students. 

Republicans went online and on TV. They called for the death penalty. The president laid the blame on the "radical left." White supremacists rallied in Huntington Beach, CA, breathing threats of retaliation. White men were putting up videos announcing how many guns they had and they were ready to use them against "the libs."  

All of this without a person in custody. No true information about a motive.

But that didn't stop people from phoning in threats to Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the South. Many canceled in person classes and students went online for the rest of the week. 

The person the police finally arrested? A 22 year-old white man from a Republican family in Utah. Reportedly, he was a fan of White Christian Nationalist Nick Fuentes, who hated Charlie Kirk because he wasn't extremist enough. 

Yeah. Not hateful enough. 

Meanwhile...if people expressed any level of "meh" about Kirk's death, they were being fired or reprimanded and hounded online. All while those who purported to be mourning their hero were calling for tolerance and toning down the political rhetoric. 

So, if you weren't upset enough about this death, you could be punished by people who felt that Kirk was killed for his speech which was often anti-trans, anti-black, anti-queer, degrading of women.....

Free speech for me, but not for thee.

I strongly recommend you look up the reading from Jeremiah that I used as the launching pad for this sermon. You might even read Psalm14, it's short. And put on some Bob Dylan and tell me what you think. 

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Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Ps.14

One of the great American theologians… the folk singer Bob Dylan… once asked a series of philosophical questions.

Some of you may remember these:

How many roads a must a man walk down…before he’s called a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail before she rests in the sand?

And how many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned?

His concluding response to these conundrums was simply that the answers were “blowin’ in the wind.”

I’m only half-joking calling Dylan a theologian.

His iconic song of the 1960s came to mind as I looked at our dear beleaguered and bothered prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah…tasked with telling his people some really terrible news…also knew that the wind held the truth of what was to become of Jerusalem and Judah.

A hot wind from God…toward God’s people…was coming…not to winnow or cleanse…but to speak judgment.

Scholars don’t know if these words were meant to warn the people of the invasion of the Babylonians…or if this was some sort of retrospective lament for what happen to Jeremiah’s people.

But we do know that Judah and Jerusalem were sacked by an invading army.

The best minds were taken away…and the people were left deeply traumatized…lost and afraid.

They felt that they had been totally abandoned in the wilderness.

The words we heard this morning from Jeremiah are only a portion of a long poetic prophecy of total doom and destruction.

Things had gotten so bad that God was going to do the unthinkable; a total reversal of the creation story in Genesis.

No more birds.

The mountains and the fruitful land? Gone.

All because the people…the leaders…the followers… were stupid children.

Ouch!

Our lectionary diviners then provide Psalm 14 something of a Greek chorus,

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.”

All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;

There is none who does any good.” (14:1)

Again…ouch!

I have to say that this past week…it certainly felt as if these words from our Biblical ancestors could’ve been written for us today.

On Wednesday…the eve of remembering the terrible attack against our country in 2001…when more than three thousand people died in an act of terrorism with airplanes…we had yet another school shooting at a high school in the Denver area.

The 16 year-old shooter reportedly had lots of ammunition that he brought with him to school.

His two classmates were in the hospital in critical condition.

He took his own life.

And then…only a few hours later…Charlie Kirk…a political ideologue…was gunned down on a college campus in Utah.

No matter what anyone might think of Kirk as a person…a man who said many things that were ugly and hateful toward women and minorities…he was a human being.

And it is never OK to shoot anyone.

He’s now another name added to the growing body count…of schoolchildren…politicians…judges…church members…the faithful in synagogues…mosques and temples…mothers…fathers…sons…

daughters….grandchildren…the countless unnamed others across the country…killed by guns.  

More families grieving a senseless loss. 

Again…Bob Dylan asks us:

“How many times must a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?”

“How many deaths will it take ‘til he knows that too many people have died?”

There is a hot wind that is blowing across this country.

And it’s been blowing a scorching…hard and fearsome heat for way too long.

There is far too much hatred…misdirected anger…blaming and shaming…with neighbor turning on neighbor in ways that I would dare say we have never seen in our lifetimes.

Unfortunately…our political leadership…and those given the trust of our airwaves…and online platforms from which to pontificate… media of all kinds…are not helping us.

In some cases…they are actively working to foment discord…and fanning the inflammatory speech that goes into our ears…and then infects our heads and hearts with disdain and distrust for each other.

The whole tenor of our country is growing more threatening…and dark.

As our former presiding bishop Michael Curry once said, “Our E Pluribus Unum isn’t very Unum.”

Which is why the ending to Psalm 14 is important.

So often…when I am asked about which book is my favorite in the Bible… I find myself first thinking about the four Gospels and their ways of showing us Jesus.

But truly my most favorite book is the Psalms.

The psalmist…who many think was King David and he did write quite few…has a way of capturing our human emotions…and putting things in such poetic words that reflect the joys and struggles of our daily lives.

The psalms give us ways to express our emotions…from lament to laughter…in beautiful and thoughtful ways.

Psalm 14…which the notes on it seem to say that it was not written by David but rather TO him…picks up on the themes of Jeremiah’s rant…but then makes that subtle and hopeful turn toward the end.

“Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers who eat up my people like bread and do not call upon the Lord? See how they tremble with fear, because God is in the company of the righteous.” (14:5-6).

God’s Love has never left us.

Even when we feel God’s absence…we are never alone.

Much like when we’re having day after day of wet and stormy weather…it’s not that the sun…the S-U-N…has disappeared.

It’s just blocked by the clouds for the time being…but it’s still there.

It’s in the sky…keeping time with the moon…waiting for the rain to clear out...and the thunder clouds to move on.

In that same way…God’s Love…the hope that comes from God’s promise to us…is still there.

We heard it in our Gospel this morning that God’s Love will seek and search for us…rejoicing when those who have lost their way are found again.

Right now…in 21^st century America…we seem to be lost.

And what we’ve lost is that sense of our interdependence on each other…our willingness to live together…learn from each other…be in community with one another.

We can… and we will disagree…and annoy one another.

But we don’t have to silence or kill each other.

The gift that we…the Church and all those who look to God in faith and hope…can bring to this world…is the ability to see each other as beloved children of God…no matter our political affiliation…our economic status…our skin color…our gender…our orientation…our native language or country of origin.

For our part…as followers of Jesus…we need to take seriously the charge He gave to us…and commit ourselves to bringing good news to the poor.

How?

Perhaps it’s being more mindful about what we share online…the comments we make…the way we engage with total strangers who…for all we know…are not even real people but a bot halfway around the world programmed to attack our thoughts and opinions…and in flame us against each other.  

We’re to proclaim release to the captives…not just people in physical prison cells…but to those who are caught in any life-killing loop…such as addiction.

We’re to help open the eyes of the blind…help those whom we love and people we know…to see more clearly through our actions that hope…and mercy…and compassion are available for them.

And we’re to let the oppressed go free.

We’re to work toward freeing ourselves and others from our fears that makes them and us seek to have power over people.

We need to quit inventing power struggles with straw men and women because honestly… there is no power struggle that is worth destroying our souls.

We come to this table to be fed.

We receive the body and blood of Christ.

And what we’re bringing into our bodies is more than just bread and wine.

It’s that reminder that you and me and everyone in this room and all who are participating in this ritualistic act around the world…are being brought into a mission that is about countering the powers that want to hurt us…and divide us.

This food and drink is given freely… to help us make this a better world for ourselves as well as for others.

It’s time to make a commitment to cool off this hot wind of hatred…and infuse our world with more love and more hope.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.