Read on Twitter
Anyone who's read my stuff in the Trump years knows that I'm not a big fan of panic and hysteria on this website. I'd much rather people tell us what to do than why we should be completely freaked out.
I even blocked a few of the better-known "When the fascist tells you who he is, believe him" types, because that was basically all they had, nothing in the way of response or motivation to keep going.
Being paralyzed by fear of or disgust for your political opponents—no matter how awful they are—helps no one.
With that in mind, here's a brief-ish sermon. The text is the first couple of chapters of Genesis. https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=477293226
Let's start in a strange place, with a couple of questions. One of them you might have wondered about before, one seems very not obvious.
So: 1. Have you ever wondered why Christians worship on Sunday, rather than Saturday?
And 2. If you've ever looked at baptismal fonts, you may have noticed that they're very often in octagonal shapes. Why is those things?
And 2. If you've ever looked at baptismal fonts, you may have noticed that they're very often in octagonal shapes. Why is those things?
The answer to both of these questions turns out to be 8.
8?
8.
8?
8.
You see, in the ancient world, *7* was a magic number. Whenever big things happened, they happened in sevens. Joseph dreams of seven fat cows and seven lean ones, for example.
It was also a number of completion. Today we talk about "three strikes and you're out." Back in the day, they would have given you seven chances—which doesn't say much for the quality of their designated hitters.
So, for example, Isaac works for seven years to win the hand of Rachel, only to find out that he's been duped into marrying her sister Leah. He then works another "bridal week" to get to Rachel, i.e., two complete weeks.
Two complete cycles, that is.
And of course, the Hebrew God labors to complete creation in six days, then rests on the seventh. Sabbath is built into creation for Jews.
When Christians separated from the Jewish synagogues (opinions vary on whether this was a voluntary departure), they decided to find a new day on which to gather for worship.
They chose to meet very early on Sunday—the eighth day of the week, so to speak—to celebrate the eucharist.
They saw themselves as a "new creation in Christ," as Paul says. That new creation is reflected in the practice of baptism. The fonts, then, have 7+1 sides: the creation, which has begun anew.
The new creation is also reflected in the Lord's Supper, or communion or eucharist, whatever you want to call it, in which Christ literally or symbolically dies and rises again.
If you've ever wondered why Sundays don't count in Lent, this is why: every Sunday is a miniature Feast of the Resurrection, and who would fast on Easter?
(tldr; so far: Dan is filled with useless information about the history of Christian worship.)
Okay, back to the text. It's not an accident, I think, that in this telling of the creation story, humans are fashioned *after* the seventh day. Creation is complete without them.
Yet out of love, God creates man and woman, and yes, everything in between.
Yet out of love, God creates man and woman, and yes, everything in between.
The point of that part of the story isn't that God created humans to be male or female. It's that God is responsible for creating both sexes, all sexes, something that was not a given in the ancient world.
And finally to the point of this sermon, Adam and Eve and Steve and all of us are created for a purpose. We have work to do.
Likewise, those of us who are Christians believe that we are *re*created for a purpose.
There are many different ways to parse what that purpose is, but for the sake of a general audience, I take a different tack.
I would encourage you not to see our current political moment as the end of American democracy. Rather, we are living through its eighth day, albeit an unsettling and disturbing one.
American democracy is being recreated, and inshallah, becoming what it never was.
And you, too, have been made for a purpose: to participate in the new creation, to tend and till and nurture its garden.
And you, too, have been made for a purpose: to participate in the new creation, to tend and till and nurture its garden.
Or as Langston Hughes says:
"We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147907/let-america-be-america-again
"We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147907/let-america-be-america-again
That has to be done with great realism—Langston Hughes was certainly no cuddly optimist, as you'll discover if you read the full poem—but it also must be done with great confidence, and yes, love for the nation and its people.
If you don't believe that America can be redeemed, in other words, if you think our democracy is over with and we'll never be rid of the fascists who have hijacked, I would kindly invite you to GTFO and move to Canada or Sweden or whatever paradise you have in mind.
I am not a great believer in American exceptionalism or the idea that we are called to be a light to other nations, but I do believe that we have our own particular work to be about.
Honestly, that's often if not mostly about living up to the potential we have so consistently undermined for ourselves.
But the point is that we have work to do, and we need people who are committed to that work.
As I look back on my life and career, I can see twin obsessions running through it: the idea that there is more democracy to come, and that the God of Abraham and Isaac is interested in furthering that democracy.
So here we are, in a new day for our nation, and I find myself ready to recommit to the work of the re-creation of democracy.
How about you?
How about you?
The end.
(There will be terrible coffee and donuts at the conclusion of the service.)
