‘ACTIONS THAT SPEAK’

Isaiah 58:6-11

I Thessalonians 5:12-22

Mark 4:30-32

            Words often have a great effect on us, for either good or ill.  And we do not always receive a warning of what is coming like Bob and I received two weeks ago.  Our 5-year-old grandson, Bryce, was staying with us for the day, while his parents attended a Husky football game, and just as we sat down for dinner, Bryce announced, “You’d better watch out!  I’m going to tell you something that will knock your ears off!”

            That ‘something’ had to do with the fact that he plans to dress up like a pirate for Halloween, so the news itself wasn’t as entertaining as his introduction.  But what amused us the most was Bryce’s discovery that words can have real power.

            I value words.  I enjoy being immersed in words.  This is true whether they come through conversation, through lecture or through reading.  Yet even young people learn this adage at an early age – “Actions speak louder than words.”  It is actions, therefore, that we will look at most closely as we ponder today’s Scripture readings.  But we will do this while acknowledging that, to be effective, actions and words need to go hand-in-hand.

            Rudyard Kipling once said, “Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.” (Illustrations Unlimited, ed. James S. Hewett, p. 11)  And if we had not realized this fact previously, those of us who are gardeners here in the Northwest certainly learned the truth of this statement in our dry summer just past.

            As we look then to today’s passage from Isaiah, we see a definite emphasis on actions.  The prophet is speaking to a post-exilic community, i.e. a community back from exile in Babylon that is rebuilding its identity in home territory.  It is a community whose situation is described in this way by the well-known Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann:  “There is a huge gap between the community’s actions and what the group expresses in worship.”  (Isaiah 40-66, Brueggemann, Westminster Bible Companion, p. 186).

            The people were engaged in activities designed to impress God as they worshipped and fasted.  But while they were fasting, they were oppressing those who worked under them and quarreling and fighting.  In short, while going through the motions and rituals of worship, the people were engaged in unjust economic practices.  And God’s response to them, through Isaiah, begins in v. 6:  “Is not this the fast that I choose:  to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?”  From God’s perspective, there are major actions to be fulfilled!

            And the list of what they were and we are called to do gets even longer, as  we are instructed to share bread, provide shelter and clothing, to refrain from pointing fingers, speaking evil or doing anything that puts others in bondage.  But lest the list seems too long and too difficult, the prophet reminds us that the result of living by God’s standards means that we will receive light and life and freedom from spiritual thirst.  What wonderful gifts!

            Yet we know that, in certain moments of human frailty, we find it difficult to take action.  We see ourselves in a statement made by one politician about his opponent:  “He reminds me of a fog horn.  He repeatedly calls attention to the problem, but he never does anything about it.”  (Complete Speaker’s Galaxy by Winston K. Pendleton, #720).  And we can identify with the older church member who, in prayer meetings, repeatedly prayed, “Use me, O Lord, use me—in some advisory capacity!”  (Illustrations Unlimited, p. 98)

            I was recently reminded of my own inadequate response to the homeless, hungry and oppressed in the world when I attended a service of prayer for Darfur which was held at Madrona Presbyterian Church on September 17^th.  The service was a wonderful experience since it included Christian, Jewish and Muslim speakers and musicians plus those from helping agencies in the wider community.  One of the best spoken messages was given by Congressman Jim McDermott who has actually been to Darfur in person.  But the power of the service primarily came, in my opinion, from the fact that a sizeable group of a variety of people came together to pray for a common reason.  What will be needed, of course, on the part of all of us, will be follow-through.

            I was also reminded of my own inadequate response to the hungry and homeless right here in Seattle as I listened this past Tuesday to the witness of one our ministry candidates under care of Seattle Presbytery.  This young man, who serves in a non-ordained position at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, preached before the Committee on Preparation for Ministry Sub-group on which I serve and told about an experience he had this past summer. He was rushing down Broadway to a grocery store to buy a loaf of bread that was to be a visual reminder about hunger to the church’s youth group.  On his way to the store, a homeless man was sitting on the sidewalk hoping someone would toss him a few coins.  And, unlike most people who passed by, after buying the bread, Jack took time to stop and talk with the man.  And here’s what the man told him:  Yes, he frequently experienced physical hunger, but what hurt him most was the fact that he had lost his sense of dignity and his humanity because people rarely spoke to him, rarely asked his name and failed to spend even a few moments talking with him.  To Jack’s credit, he did all those things and when the loaf of bread arrived back at the church, a major portion was gone….a visual statement for the youth to be sure!

            Even when we know we could do more, I want to urge us to rejoice because of the ways we have also been able to share in the past two weeks.  What a privilege it was to worship with the Kenyan International Community Choir on September 24^th and to be on the receiving end of grace that day!  And how blessed we were, once again, last Sunday as we were surrounded by vivid reminders of the worldwide Church and as we had opportunities to act through sharing in both the Peacemaking Offering and in the CROP Walk.  In all these occasions, and more, we have shared actions that speak.  And that helps to open us to receiving suggestions about even more actions which Paul described in his First Letter to the Thessalonians.

            I know, however, that there is a risk involved in reading and hearing Paul’s exhortations.  What he says may seem like just another long list of “to-dos,” so comprehensive that we can never expect to live out all that he says.  The verses we have heard this morning are, in fact, sometimes called “Paul’s shotgun paraenisis,” meaning Paul’s shotgun teaching designed to hit every aspect of life. (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI, p. 731) 

            “Rejoice always we read….give thanks in all circumstances.” Even when your young daughter is brutally killed in a schoolroom by a deranged man?  The Amish community in Pennsylvania has come much closer to living out Paul’s admonitions this past week than I think I could.

            Yet I would urge us to see this section of Scripture as a passage that points us to a way of life instead of a “to-do” list.  We will probably never get to a finished point in all of our days on earth, but we can continually be pointed in the direction God wants us to go if we take seriously what Paul says.  We can do that even though moving in that direction involves steps of faith that sometimes seem as small and insignificant as a mustard seed.

  If you’ve seen mustard seeds, you know that they do not look capable of producing much at all.  How can a bush of any size come from such a tiny object?

I would call to our attention the fact that the parable of the mustard seed does include some hyperbole, for the mustard shrub is not the largest in the world.  Some such shrubs that I remember seeing in the Galilean countryside were quite bushy, but I also remember walking silently down the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem, following the path that Jesus took to the Garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed.  And on that walk our tour guide quietly pointed out some small, scraggly bushes that were mustard shrubs.  There was nothing majestic about those plants, yet to grow at all in such a rocky, desolate place was – perhaps – something of a miracle.

Most importantly, the parable reminds us that as we continue to sow even small seeds of justice and peace our acts of caring may help to bring about surprising results.

What then, we ask, is God calling us to be and do both as individuals and as a congregation in the months ahead?  I have no idea!  Yet part of the excitement for me is the fact that we do not know and are asked to proceed on faith.

However, what we can affirm from experience is this….our God is a God of faithfulness.  And God will honor and use what we say and do when we try to live in the ways that Isaiah, Paul and Jesus have described.  We may, in fact, see the lives of others being touched in surprising ways by what we do.  But, equally important, we will learn from and be spoken to by others who also have a vision for justice and peace.

What greater benediction could all peacemakers receive than to hear God say in the midst of this parched, hungry and warring world:  “You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.”  With God’s help, may this water of life and hope spread all across the earth!