Wandering Christian

What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: nor heat of a blazing fire, darkness and gloom and storms, blasts of trumpets or such a voice that the people pleaded that no further word be spoken.
But you came near to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem with its innumerable angels. You have come to the solemn feast, the assembly of the firstborn of God, whose names are written in heaven. There is God, Judge of all, with the spirits of the upright brought to per­fec­tion. There is Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, with the sprinkled blood that cries out more effectively than Abel’s.
Be careful not to reject God when he speaks. If those who did not heed the prophet’s warnings were not spared on earth, how much more shall we be punished if we do not heed the One warning us from heaven? His voice then shook the earth, but now he says: Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.
The words once more indicate the removal of everything that can be shaken, that is, created things, and only those that cannot be shaken will remain. Such is the kingdom that we receive. Let us then be grateful and offer to God a worship pleasing to him with reverence and awe. Our God is indeed a consuming fire.

Jesus went through towns and villages teaching and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, is it true that few people will be saved?”
And Jesus answered, “Do your best to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you will stand outside; then you will knock at the door calling: ‘Lord, open to us.’ But he will say to you: ‘I do not know where you come from.’
Then you will say: We ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets! But he will reply: ‘I don’t know where you come from. Away from me all you workers of evil.’
You will weep and grind your teeth when you see Abraham and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves left outside. Others will sit at table in the kingdom of God, people coming from east and west, from north and south. Some who are among the last will be the first, and others who were first will be last!”

Hebrews 12:18-19,22-29 and Luke 13:22-30 - Proper of the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (year C)
The Bible (Pastoral Community Version)

My 88-year old grandmother carries what I call the Portuguese melancholy gene. This is a term I invented after realizing that it is culturally Portuguese to have this growing nostalgia and sensibility as older one gets.

The point is that, more than that, my grandmother has a spiritual sensitivity that often makes her cry over daily issues. She cannot watch the news sometimes, because the dramas of the world make her suffer much more than what she can handle. And when it comes to spiritual matters, it can get even worse. If she looks at a crucifix, just the idea of imagining Christ's pain, hanging on the cross, makes her blood pressure rise and her eyes get full of tears.

For years, I joined the crowd of relatives who would mock her for her “silliness and juvenile behavior”. For years, I myself could not cry. From my mid-adolescence to some years ago, I promised myself I would not cry again. All those who had caused me so much pain would not see my tears anymore. And then I started crying from the inside, until God rescued me and I came back to the Church...

This week, I understood granny. Three days ago, a series of events in my life triggered an extreme sensibility to people's pains. I caught myself crying because a priest I didn't even know in this life died of cancer. I cried when I knew of a young woman in Curitiba (which is not even a violent city) who was murdered this weekend. I cried when I saw the beggars on the street, asking for food. I cried because a friend was expelled from his home. I cried when I realized Christ took all this pain on that cross. It is too much pain...

God is crying too. Can't you see?

Every thirteen minutes, a Brazilian is murdered. US$ 100,000.00 per year is the amount of money that the National Health Service expends treating people injured by firearms. When this year finishes, 25,000 Brazilians will have been killed because of car accidents, many of them so easily preventable! In São Paulo, about 60% of all murders happen for futile reasons. Only in Rio, urban guerrilla kills eight times more than conflicts in Palestine. 30% of all murderers here are teenagers.

There is more! In the whole world, there is one gun for every twelve people. Every minute, one child dies from AIDS. Eight million children in this planet die from hunger every year. One million people worldwide commit suicide in this same period. For every two babies that are born in the world, there was one abortion... 126,000 abortions per day, many of them for stupid reasons. Wars, many of them in the name of God, have taken away 185,000,000 people in the XXth century – one in every 22 deaths.

In our country, we have seen a Native American being burned by rich youngsters in Brasília. A teacher, who happened to be homosexual, was heavily beaten by a nazi-gang while walking home, alone, in São Paulo. Some days ago, a maid was spanked by wealthy teenagers in Rio. An American nun, Sr. Dorothy Stang, was shot dead years ago, for being a human rights activist in the Amazon.

We waste... resources, food, water... We live as if our descendants did not need this world. We destroy this giant Garden of Eden named Earth. Gaia, this organic complex composed of all God's creation, is severely ill. And we do not care.

We do not share. Not even a hug sometimes! We see people in need every single day, but we got used to their existence. They do not bother anymore.

I did not want to be God. It is too much pain and too much destruction for anyone to handle.

God is crying. Can't you see?

I must confess my greatest weakness is hatred. I tend to hate people I consider evil. Throughout my life as a Christian, I have struggled with this recurring feeling of hatred I feel when I see some of those actions (and many more) I have cited before.

I cannot be God! I would exterminate all of them with my magic wand. They would have no second choice, nothing! I would purge the world from evil, by all means necessary.

God, however, has given us a choice. There is a narrow door through which anyone can enter, as today's Gospel tells us. But why a narrow door? In ancient times, cities had walls, for protection against eventual invaders. During the day, the big, main doors, were kept wide open; but when night came, they were shut, and only some small side doors could be used as an entrance, especially for merchants and caravans. So, if one were planning to get inside the city, this person really needed to find these small passages.

It is not very pleasant to spend a night in the desert. Temperatures can get very low and the wind is violent in such places. But if one could not find the narrow door, that would be her/his destiny. No city guards would let someone in through the main doors at night.

It is interesting to notice that the lesson from Hebrews tells us about a Heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, where Jesus celebrates the feast with the saints and angels. The imagery of Heaven as a city was also explored by many Christian theologians. St. Augustine of Hippo wrote a whole book, coincidently called City of God, in the Vth century. By then, Rome was sacked by the Visigoths, and many Romans were in dismay, since they believed that, after Christianity's designation as the official religion of the empire, Rome would triumph as the new Israel.

St. Augustine, however, argued that Christianity should be concerned with the mystical New Jerusalem only. Religion should not hold hands with organized politics. In fact, they would be constantly in conflict: the City of God against the City of Man. Those who were committed to Christian values, such as peace, justice and reconciliation, composed the City of God. Those who had strayed from it were the City of Man. Ultimately, the City of God would triumph.

Jesus wants everybody to enter the City of God. And it is a bold and strong statement to say this in this community called Cidade de Deus (City of God, in Portuguese), but where so many are still in the City of Man. But as our lesson says, everything that can be shaken will be removed, and only what cannot be shaken will remain.

It is my deep desire that all have a chance to find the narrow door. I hope the punishments people inflict to themselves will convince them of their sins and urge them to repent from their unrighteous ways.

God cries when one of these beloved children does not find the narrow door. Can't you see?

The door is narrow not because God does not want us to find the way to it. It is narrow because the City of God is so precious it cannot be invaded by those who are not committed to Christ's kingdom. Unfortunately, many claim to be Christ's disciples, but fail to put into practice his message. They claim they have eaten with him, and had him preaching on their streets, but still have not found the way through the narrow door.

Abp. Tutu, Bishop Emeritus of Cape Town, once said that “not to take a stand against injustice is to take a stand for it”. Sometimes, we feel safe and comfortable in our churches. We do not care about the pain and suffering this world around us feels. What we do not know is that, when we do that, we miss the narrow door.

We are so close to the City of God! This is what the epistle reading says... We are by its door and invited to come in. All we have to do is to take a stand. A stand against prejudice, opression and violence. A stand against incredulity and lack of hope. A stand against hunger, poverty and misery. A stand against everything that is un-christlike.

Our Lord Jesus Christ wants everybody, from east, west, north and south, to come in and celebrate the feast. As his followers, it is our duty to reach as many people as possible and show this path of light to them.

Yesterday I woke up with a song in my mind. Like +Tutu, the song is from South Africa and is sung in Zulu, one of their many languages. It is composed of one simple sentence: Siyahamba ekukhanyen' kwenkhos' (in English: “We are marching in the light of God”). Last week I saw our primate dancing to it on an Internet movie and it made me remember of a choir I joined years ago. Siyahamba was one of my favorite hymns. It fits so well this community, because one cannot listen to it without busting a move!

I hope, with all my heart, that we all will march even more in the light of God, taking as many people as we can find along the way to the Heavenly City.

The New Jerusalem is right there. Can't you see? All we need is to take a stand.

And then God will smile. Forever. Can you see?

Sermon preached at Christ the King, a parish of the Anglican Diocese of Rio de Janeiro, in 08/26/2007.