Wandering Christian

Pride is odious to both God and man; injustice is abhorrent to both of them. Sovereignty passes from one nation to another because of injustice, violence and wealth. How can there be such pride in some­­one who is nothing but dust and ashes? Even while he is living, man’s bowels are full of rottenness. Look: the illness lasts while the doctor makes light of it; and one who is king today will die tomorrow. Once a man is dead, grubs, insects and worms are his lot. The beginning of man’s pride is to separate himself from the Lord and to rebel against his Creator. The beginning of pride is sin. Whoever perseveres in sinn opens the floodgates to everything that is evil. For this the Lord has inflicted dire punishment on sinners; he has reduced them to nothing. The Lord has overturned the thrones of princes and set up the meek in their place. The Lord has torn up the proud by the roots and has planted the humble in their place. The Lord has overturned the land of the pagans and totally destroyed them. He has devastated several of them, destroyed them and removed all remembrance of them from the face of the earth. Pride was not created for man nor violent anger, for those born of woman.

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to offer hospitality; you know that some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember prisoners as if you were with them in chains, and the same for those who are suffering. Remember that you also have a body.
Marriage must be respected by all and husband and wife faithful to each other. God will punish the immoral and the adulterous.
Do not depend on money. Be content with having enough for today for God has said: I will never forsake you or abandon you, and we shall confidently answer: The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me? Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Consider their end and imitate their faith. Christ Jesus is the same today as yesterday and forever.

One Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and he was carefully watched.
Jesus then told a parable to the guests, for he had noticed how they tried to take the places of honor. And he said, “When you are invited to a wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you has been invited, and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you: ‘Please give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat!
Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you: ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.”
Jesus also addressed the man who had invited him and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives and wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid. When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Fortunate are you then, because they can’t repay you; you will be repaid at the Resurrection of the upright.”

Sirach 10:7-18, Hebrews 13:1-8 and Luke 14:1,7-14 - Proper of the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (year C)
The Bible (Pastoral Community Version)

Time passes by very quickly, and soon, I will be twenty-six years old (isn't that much already?). However, God has blessed immensely and I do not believe I look that old (bless my heart)! Well, even sounding like a joke, some people still believe I am eighteen, and that has been pretty common throughout my life. I have always looked younger (and hope I still look) than I actually were.

Today's Gospel is about parties: many of them! I love parties and I have always loved dancing! Who does not? And when I was about to have eighteen years of age, I was very eager to going to nice parties that happened at the fanciest night clubs of Rio. I was rediscovering myself (unfortunately, far from God) and clubbing was part of it, especially coming from a tradition that considered such events inherently sinful. However, I looked younger! Nowhere I would convince people I could get in, while some friends, who looked older, could pass through the nightclub personnel easily.

I do not know if you are aware of what happens at the night scene. There are people, called “promoters” who organize such parties. Their cell phones have thousands of contacts. They are patronized by everybody, because promoters can determine who is “in” and who is “out”. Once I heard one say “o please, I will never allow a girl wearing a tiara come in... so last season!”. Yes, promoters can be cruel. And soon I found out that not looking old was only one of the many pre-requisites one had to have in order to get in the most fabulous parties in town. You had to be good looking, you had to be successful, you had to be famous!

Jewish parties were no different from the parties we have nowadays. Some of them were religious, and we have probably heard much about them. However, Jesus specifically speaks of private parties, such as weddings and luncheons. This is because, like night clubs, those parties had “promoters”, and a list of who was in, and who was out. Only the rich and well-seen were invited. The excluded and oppressed never got a chance of taking part of such events. What a shame!

To ancient Jewish culture, such parties had a very important meaning: they used to show to friends and extended family how wealthy and fortunate someone were. Weddings, for example, could last one week. One week of festivities: wine, food, music and dances. And if you have been to a Jewish marriage, you have probably seen joyful dances in which different people hold hands and form big circles in a joyful movement of bodies. I bet you would join the crowd if you had the chance, as probably did Jesus, when he was invited to parties.

The idea of a God who dances might sound strange to some, especially to those who come from more conservative traditions. However, dance was an integral part of the celebrations of the ancient Israelites. It was used both in worship in ordinary life and on occasions of triumphant victory and festivity. The sacred dance mediated between God and humanity, thus bringing the Israelites into a closer relationship with their God, Jehovah. Dancing was so intrinsic to their religious life that, of all forty four words in the Hebrew language for dancing, only in one is there a possible reference to secular movement. The most frequently used root for the word 'dance' in the Old Testament is hul which refers to the whirl of the dance and implies highly active movement.

Early Christian tradition also tells us about dancing. St. John of Damascus, in the 8th century, used the Greek term perichoresis (peri – around; choré – dance) in order to describe the existence of multiple divine persons in one another in the Holy Trinity. It is interesting to notice that, alone, apart from each other, all three persons are separated. However, if they hold hands and dance, they become one sole God. There is a co-indwelling and what one does, the others can do. God is dancing, for sure.

God dances following the gentle breeze that rubs your face when you leave for work. God dances according to the gibberish a baby murmurs. God dances following you, when you are running, barefeet, on the grass. God dances according to the Anglican aerobics: sit down, stand up, kneel, cross, bow, raise hands, clap hands (OK, hardcore charismatics would do those last two)... God dances Quinceañera waltzes and even to the sound of Black Eyed Peas. God dances around you while you are sleeping, and when time comes, S/He will be there to take you in a lovely dance, to Heaven. God dances listening to your heartbeat.

Perichoresis, thus, is not only a dance of the Trinity. Perichoresis is an invitation for us to join God in this joyful dance. Our path towards holiness, in fact, means joining God and being one with Her/Him, and at the same time become one with the others. And then, like the Jews dancing in big circles, we would hold hands and join our God and our brethren in this wonderful movement.

Once I heard a joke saying that Jesus was the best promoter ever, because “he could organize a party with nothing more than a loaf and a cup of wine, which endures until today”. Jesus rocks, doesn't He? And this party happens every Sunday in many communities, around the world. It is called Holy Eucharist. When we gather together around the altar, and worship God, we take part of this dance (even being difficult for some, but I reaffirm: you should move your bodies a bit more). It is an equality party. All are given the same amount of bread and wine. No one has more or less rights.

What puzzles me is that, unfortunately, there are some who want to be the “promoters”, when Jesus was the official one. They want to predefine who is “in” and who is “out” of this party. And during these almost 2,000 years of Church history, that has happened much more than we could imagine.

You must have visited churches with side galleries. Normally, old churches have this feature, and even some new ones still do, in order to preserve architectural traditions. Galleries, however, had a very sad purpose at the beginning: they were built in order to keep African slaves distant from their owners. Galleries were, in fact, a means of segregation. They were a man-made barrier with the sole intent of excluding some of God's children from the full life of the Church.

How many Afros do you see in the Church, especially in leadership positions? Aren't we still segregating, even in a more subtle way?

And what about women? Some months ago, I had the opportunity of visiting the Rev. Carmen Etel, the first woman to be ordained here in Brazil, more than twenty years ago. She shared some of the struggles of those women who desired, by then, to become priests. A fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, disregarding beautiful passages of the Gospels and even of Pauline letters, was used by some in order to segregate those who have always worked for this Church, and been the majority of our membership. Thank God, in our Province, women can accede to the threefold ordained ministry.

How many women clergy do you see in the Church? Aren't we still diminishing them, thinking they cannot be as effective as men in their service?

Once, I received a message on a web portal. It was from a guy, named Fernando... He said he saw some comments and postings I have published on the Internet, and that he was very happy with what he read. He was gay, and lived with his partner in São Paulo. Since his childhood, he struggled with his sexuality, in a very conservative church, and was submitted to all sorts of “treatments”. Then, he finally gave up and decided not to believe in the cruel god he met there. I remember his last phrase: “Can I attend an Anglican Church? I'm not effeminate, and I will not comment I have a partner. Can I just go there and sit? Please, pray for me. I want to get closer to God.” And then I thought: our church has produced so much good theological material de-mystifying homosexuality. He would be welcomed in so many parishes. Why is this happening? But before I could reply to him, he deleted his scrap.

How many Fernandos do we still have? Longing for a safe place where they can be themselves?

Years ago, I was part of a church located in a medium-class neighborhood. There was a beggar who always went there, but was banned, because she was stinking. Then, she would sit in front of the church, and try to listen to the service. Minutes before its ending, she would leave, take her packages and go back to the place she normally used to spend the day, two blocks far from that church. Comments from parishioners were far from candid: “she could have found a job”, “she could have taken a shower before going to church”, “why doesn't she find a place to live, instead of polluting the streets”. Some parishioners, however, insisted on giving her food and clothes, which she accepted gladly. The pressure from other members to isolate her from parish life, however, was stronger. Eventually, she disappeared. I have no idea where she is now, but I hope God found a better place for her to worship.

How many miserable people are still excluded from our parish life? Why are our churches so empty of poor people?

Why is the Church, still, trying to say who is “in” and who is “out”?

Our Lord Jesus Christ suggested us to invite those who were considered the outcasts of society. He was aware that our tendency was to invite the rich and famous, so, we would have access to their chic world. He knew our tendency was to try to occupy the most important places in parties, so we would look good and be as famous as the host. However, that is not what is expected from a Christian.

The lesson from Hebrews resumes what us Christians are expected to do: we have to be hospitable, and seek fraternal love. Fraternal love means a compassionate heart to listen to the pleas of the oppressed, whomever they are! In doing so, we will achieve happiness. Many of them will become like angels in our lives (and some of them, I believe, are angels, in fact). In being humble, caring and self-giving, one day, we will be exalted by God, because we have a God who does not discriminate anyone. More than that, our God overturns the arrogants and establishes the lowly in their stead.

Yesterday, I watched a short video on Anglicanism. It was showing some characteristics of our church, and it almost brought me to tears of joy, for being part of a church who has been a prophetic voice for inclusiveness in the last years, taking a firm stand against war, misery, oppression and prejudice. The video had a motto: “The Anglican Church waits for you, with open minds, open hearts, open doors...”

My brethren, we have to invite, bring and receive everybody with open minds, open hearts and open doors. We cannot keep this secret with us. We ought to dance with God, and invite as many people as we can to join the crowd. In this dance, we all are equal and we all become one with God. And this dancing-God will teach us how to dance better this dance of holiness. We will grow together. But for others to join, we have to be Christ's promoters. Not the ones who say who is out, but the ones for whom everybody is in. Our church is too good not to share.

Our ultimate goal is to invite all to take part of this godly party, and develop a relationship with God through the divine dance, with open minds, open hearts and open doors... Always! Amen.

Sermon preached at Good Jesus, a parish of the Anglican Diocese of Rio de Janeiro, in 09/02/2007.