THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY
Year A
February 2, 2014
Micah 6:1-8
Psalm 15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12
Pastor David Tryggestad
Concordia Evangelical
Lutheran Church
Duluth, Minnesota
It was another one of those very cold days we’ve been having
this winter. I was working in my study as usual on that Monday morning, keeping
an eye on the temperature, because I had intended to participate in the march
on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I felt a twinge of guilt—or was it cowardice—as
I decided to skip the march and stay warm, and to go directly to the DECC for
the rally that would follow. I could work a bit longer, I told myself. I can
always find more to do, especially if it means an excuse for not doing
something more important but not necessarily pleasant.
A host of speakers took turns at the podium at the rally. The
keynote speaker was a Ph.D. from Harvard. After a number of other speakers,
Claudie Washington,
from the local NAACP, introduced this year’s recipient of the annual Drum Major
for Peace Award, Perry Kennedy, a tall, lanky African American veteran and
retired from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Kennedy came to the
mic and said, “I’m 83½ years young.” He talked about having come to Duluth in the early 1960s
after serving in the Air Corps. He talked about the racism he has encountered
throughout his life. His challenge to all of us is something he has been
repeating every time he has the opportunity to speak on the subject: “You
didn’t create yourselves! Then why are you so uppity?” Then he said, “Racism
doesn’t make any sense.”
The Harvard Ph.D. spoke eloquently. But I was moved by this
plain-talking, down-to-earth, even “earthy” old man.
This 83½ year old man challenged us. I felt a bit like I was
on trial.
In our First Lesson from Micah, God is putting the people on
trial, and the earth and all of creation are the jury:
Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before
the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the
controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the
Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
God continues speaking through the prophet: “O my people,
what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!”
In the language of Perry Kennedy, God is saying: “You didn’t
create yourselves! Then why are you so uppity?”
Our prophet concludes: “[God] has told you, O mortal, what
is good; and what does the Lord
require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly
with your God?”
I just returned from the annual Mid-Winter Convocation at
Luther Seminary. All of the presenters were eloquent, but I was moved by one in
particular. Ed Searcy is the pastor at University Hill Congregation, Vancouver, British
Columbia. He has multiple myeloma, a treatable but
incurable cancer of the blood. Ed shared how his preaching has taken on a
measure of depth and gravity that it had not had prior to his diagnosis. His
people listen more intently. Ed preached to us on our Second Lesson for today,
from the Apostle Paul.
But God chose what is foolish in the
world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the
strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not,
to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the
presence of God.
We can almost hear Perry Kennedy: “You didn’t create
yourselves! Then why are you so uppity?”
Our preacher, Ed Searcy professed, “My life has changed
since the ‘c-word.’” But Ed has given a new understanding of the word for
himself and his congregation. His “c-word” doesn’t refer so much to cancer; rather, it refers to the cross of Jesus Christ.
Ed quoted Paul: “The message about the cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of
God.” For Ed, as for Paul, the cross is the power of God. For Ed, in his
cancer, he experiences the power of God. And because Ed preaches through his cancer, his congregation
experiences the power of God.
Ed insists that we have become so accustomed to the language
of the cross that we forget its brutality, we forget its humiliation, we forget
its cursedness.
Ed invited us to imagine substituting a noose around our neck rather than a cross. He suggested we imagine
a lynching being the central image of
redemption, the central image of atonement.
We know something about lynching here in Duluth, though we might wish to forget.
I’d like to go back to the recipient of this year’s Drum
Major of the Year award, old man Perry Kennedy. One of the reasons he received
the award has been his involvement with the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial
since its inception. Perry Kennedy, along with hundreds of others in the
community who have helped to make the memorial a reality, would not have us
forget the brutality, the humiliation, the cursedness of three innocent men
being hanged by a lynch mob. Whenever I see the memorial—and I make a point to
look at it every time I help serve dinner at the Union Gospel Mission less than
a block away—I think of three crosses on a hill far away 2000 years ago. Except
that only one of those victims was innocent.
When Claudie Washington
introduced Perry Kennedy, he said that Perry insisted on one word in particular
being included someplace in the memorial: atonement.
Many people spoke at the Martin Luther King, Jr. rally at
the DECC, including one with a Ph.D. from Harvard. The one who moved me was
Perry Kennedy, this plain-talking, down-to-earth, even “earthy” old man.
Many people spoke at the Mid-Winter Convocation at Luther
Seminary this past week, all but one of them with a Ph.D. The one who moved me
was Ed Searcy, with multiple myeloma.
Every other Monday night, as I leave the Union Gospel
Mission, where we serve more than one hundred of our city’s poor and hungry, I
drive past the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial. I see three figures,
representing three innocent men who were falsely accused and brutally murdered
in a most humiliating and accursed manner.
But God chose what is foolish in the
world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the
strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not,
to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the
presence of God.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit . .
.
Blessed are those who mourn . . .
Blessed are the meek . . .
Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness . . .
Blessed are the merciful . . .
Blessed are the pure in heart . . .
Blessed are the peacemakers . . .
Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness’ sake . . .”
Rejoice and be glad! The kingdom of heaven is yours!
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