God's Indiscriminate Love for All - March 27, 2009

How is your Lent going? When it comes to Lent it is so easy to get caught up with what we are doing, giving up something or as today’s Gospel suggests that we “hate our life”. Lent for many can become a time of sacrifice. Another way of thinking about Lent is as a time for us to align ourselves with God. What does this alignment look like?

Is Lent about convincing God of our worthiness for God’s love? Or is Lent a time to acknowledge that God abides with us, so that when the Word becomes flesh in our lives we will abide with others as God abides with us?

Abiding with others as God abides with us is the challenge of Lent and indeed of our whole life. No matter where we are on our journey of faith – God abides with us.

For example, for quite a number of years I abstained from “the imposition of the ashes” part of the Ash Wednesday service. I had been hearing, “Joe, remember you are dirt NOT “Joe, remember you are dust”. Growing up as a Roman Catholic at home and at our church I was taught that as dust the purpose of my life was to purify my mind and body so that I might be pure enough to receive salvation in the next world. God abides with us.

Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador Oscar Romero’s life was shaped by his interpretation of certain words. Before he became a bishop, Fr. Romero’s focus was on the power of his priestly office. He served the sacramental needs of his people but paid little attention to their justice needs. The hierarchical church had taught him that the justice needs of the Salvadorian people were the concerns and responsibilities of the state and the political system not that of the church or its priests.

Therefore Romero never questioned the oppressive actions of the country’s power elite. Given his own fascination with power Romero was trusted by the nation’s political leaders as their ally and confidante. During these times in contrast Roman Catholic theologians like Leonardo Boff and Jon Sobrino were asking justice questions that were disturbing the peace of the country and of the Vatican. Romero and these other theologians interpreted the words of the scriptures differently. The Vatican made Romero the Bishop of El Salvador because they were confident that he would not disturb the fragile peace of the country.

In a way that could not have been anticipated by either Romero or the Vatican Romero fell in love with his people. His diaries do not tell us when he precisely changed but over time the people’s story became Romero’s story. As Romero’s interpretation of the words of the Gospel changed the way he practiced his priestly vocation changed too. All of a sudden Romero felt the oppression of his people as if it were his own. As Romero served the bread and wine to his people they like the elements he consecrated on the altar became for him as precious as the Body and Blood of Christ. As a result he cared for them differently and he cherished them with his life.

Eventually Romero was placed on a political subversive watch list. Why? Bishop Romero’ s love for his people led him to seek justice for them. These actions made Bishop Romero a very dangerous man for the status quo leaders of El Salvador. This past Tuesday was the 29th anniversary of Bishop Romero’s bloody execution.

Due to the way Bishop Romero stirred up the people he had been warned to stop celebrating the Eucharist at the Cathedral. Yet on March 24, 1980 Bishop Romero was killed while celebrating the Holy Eucharist. In his last sacramental act the Word became flesh through Romero’s proclamation of justice and the celebration of the Eucharist with the people he loved.

Young Fr. Romero and older Bishop Romero lived out very different interpretations of the Gospel. Yet I suspect that God abided with Fr. Romero as God abided with Bishop Romero. God did not change. Romero changed the way he practiced his priesthood, but God’s presence remained constant. Still we can get caught up in the way Romero changed. The change in Romero was important, but what is underrated is the way God abided with Romero before and after the changes he made in his life.

I resonate with Romero’s journey in the way my interpretation of words have changed the way I live my life. Yet I tell the story I am about to tell you to underscore the way God has abided with me before and after these changes.

I recall going to Washington DC in the late 70’s as a young man with a friend. On our first evening in DC we had pre-ordered tickets for a concert at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. When we got to the concert we quickly realized that it was a Gay Men’s Benefit Chorus. As Roman Catholics growing up in the sixties we had been raised to believe that homosexuality was wrong. So at the intermission confident that we were living out our family values we demanded our money back from the sponsors.

The sponsors said no and a battle of words ensued between us. We were finally asked to leave without our money. A week later I received a call at my office from the sponsor’s lawyers with a threat of a slander lawsuit. The threat of a lawsuit has an interesting way of helping one to change their conduct, but we did not change our minds. If anything we were more self-justified in our beliefs.

God abides with us.

In the early nineties I made friends, and met men and women who transformed my heart. Yes, with the gay men and lesbian women friends I made I could no longer continue to live following my parents’ interpretation of homosexuality as my heart had been broken open. As time passed I found that my dinner table was more diverse than the church where I worshipped. For a period of time I stopped going to church for the gulf between my changed values and my church had become so deep.

God abides with us.

Then in 2000 some twenty years after the DC incident I was drawn to All Saints Church in Pasadena where for the first time I heard the words “whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey of faith, you are welcomed at this table.” At last I had found a church home where I would not be ashamed to bring my friends and where my friends would be welcomed.

God abides with us.

There is a way this refrain can sound self-centered not caring about justice, but quite to the contrary. In the past I have preached in a way that condemns the younger Romero in order to celebrate the older Romero. Yet I don’t think the first priority of our faith lives is the interpretation of the words. When God’s word is made flesh in our lives our hearts are broken open.

Still more hopeful than an open table is the knowledge that God abides with us where we are. To pick up on Jane’s sermon last week we cannot do anything to deserve or lose God’s love. When we can say no matter what is going on in our life that God abides with us, then it is possible for the Word to become flesh in our lives. When the Word does become flesh in our lives the way we live and the way we love begins to change. I don’t think that Lent is about getting the words right or about our sacrifices.

Many people now want to canonize Bishop Romero. Some of these people are ashamed of Romero the priest who enjoyed power without justice. I believe though that God made space in God’s heart for both the younger and the older Romero. God abided with the younger and older Romero. God has certainly abided with the younger Joe Duggan and the older Joe Duggan. I wonder are we jealous of a God who loves our neighbor as much as God loves us.

In The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion different interpretations of the words of the scriptures have divided good people. In the course of these debates too many of us have lost sight of God’s divine inclusion. God abides with all.

The Good News is that Christ’s love is unconditional. God indiscriminately abides with us. Christ abides with us no matter where we are on our journeys of faith. St. Paul says as Christ increases in me, I decrease. It is pretty clear that in the end that Christ had overtaken the life of Romero. He had ultimately forgotten himself in his selfless act of love transforming his selfish concerns into God’s cares and Jesus’ ministry. As Romero forgot his desire for power he entered the transformative power of the Gospel. The Word had become flesh in Bishop Romero’s life.

When we hear the words today, “hate your life” let this not mean that we are inconsequential as dust or just mere grains. Rather we are Christ’s beloved. As Christ’s beloved we are called to abide with one another as Christ abides with us.

We are called to abide with one another as Christ abides with us.

The journey of Lent and of our lives is letting our hearts be broken open that we may abide with one another. When the Word becomes flesh in our life it is possible for us to abide with even those who may initially offend us. Then like Romero we will love unconditionally as God loves us. Until then let us be patient with one another as our faith life journeys intersect with our different interpretations of the words and the unfinished ways we live out our love of God and neighbor.

As Easter draws near may God abide with us so that the Word will become flesh in our lives and like Bishop Romero open our hearts to indiscriminately love one another.