A Call to all God’s Creatively Maladjusted* People

Anton DeWet
*See quote in “No Commentary Necessary”

Exodus 3:1-15

The earth rumbles and groans, its giant Teutonic plates begin to slide, then get caught in some gigantic obstruction before exploding again into a sudden release of energy shaking the planet and all that stands on it.

People are having dinner, they talk and laugh, think about their children, consider the work of that day or sit relaxing after another day of living. And then the buildings begin to shake and rattle and the sounds of the earth’s movement hits them like a growling beast and their world changes in that instant.

We have no idea what the cost in human life has been, in Haiti, but we know its something infinitely worse than our own losses a mere 9 years ago when the Twin Towers collapsed. We can still remember our own grief that day. Can we imagine the grief of a nation devastated in this past week’s earthquake. Being poor and politically unstable makes the grief of nation no less acute. Being poor and living in a dysfunctional country changes the pain of a parent and a husband and a child not one iota.

Here is a letter I received from our Conference Minister, Kent Siladi:

Colleagues: As we hear about the personal side to the tragedy in Haiti, I wanted to share information with you from our congregations. The first is word from Church of the Palms in Delray Beach where we have learned that a Licensed Pastor of our Conference, Souvenir Emilcare is in Haiti with members of the church and are still unaccounted for at this time. Here is the word from Roger Richardson, the pastor of Church of the Palms:

Dear Kent,

Thanks so much for your concern and the offer to share with our Florida Conference Family. Our Church of the Palms/UCC/Florida Conference Licensed Pastor Souvenir Emilcare and members of our church, who traveled to Haiti are still unaccounted for. We hold them in our prayers. We have had word that our school in Port-au-Prince and the orphanage though damaged saw no loss of life or serious injury on the school grounds. However, our school, it appears has experienced the death of two very young students who were not on campus when the earthquake hit and at last count, one teacher was killed as well. It is truly a miracle that the dormitory stayed together and the girls and staff could all get out.

He goes on:

We know little of Pastor Souvenir Emilcare at this time we know that he went to Haiti, with several church members about two weeks ago to do ministry in several of our churches in the Gonaїves, Haiti area. We do not think that he was in Port-au-Prince at the time of the earthquake but again we just don’t know for sure.

He concludes:

We covet the prayer of our Florida Conference, UCC Colleagues in ministry for our members, Pastor Emilcare, school children, church members and staff that are suffering in the monumental disaster.

May God’s Mercy be known,
Gratefully,
Roger Richardson
Pastor, Church of the Palms, Delray Beach

Then Kent Siladi writes:

The second thing I want to share is that our Miami Shores church has a missionary relationship with Patrick and Kim Bentrott who are our Global Mission Partners in Haiti. Here is the email from them:

LATEST NEWS: January 14, 2010 at 9:44am – E-mail message from Kim Bentrott

Dear India and Felix,

I’ve been trying since the earthquake to call, but our phone networks are down. Yesterday Patrick and I snuck into our apartment–that miraculously didn’t crumble when our apartment building went from three stories to two in one big crunch of the first story. The landlord got out–not sure how… but no one in our apartment complex was seriously injured or killed.

I’m sure you know by now that Patrick, Solomon and I are safe. Patrick and Francoise Villier are safe. The entire Tennessee group miraculously is safe. Had they been on time for dinner, it would have been another story.

CONASPEH building is flattened with all nursing students inside. It is in complete ruin. Francoise and Patrick lost one of their foster care kids inside. Pray for them.

Patrick and I got the Tennessee group to the American embassy yesterday. The embassy was planning on shuttling people 100 at a time to Santa Domingo, and from there AA would take them back to the states. So they all had a plan on getting out.

We spent most of the day at CONASPEH helping remove bodies and rescue the last few voices inside the rubble. We haven’t been able to contact the Villiers since yesterday morning. The phone system continues to either be completely down or jammed.

The conclude:

Pray for us. Pray for Haiti. The horror and tragedy here is beyond description. Such huge loss of life. Such devastation.

Then Rev Siladi ends with:

On a very personal note I ask for prayers for my sister Candi and my brother-in-law Steve who this morning are flying to Haiti to be a part of a medical mission team to provide relief in Port-au-Prince.

The written tradition of our faith tradition, as most traditions are, is focused upon a specific community in a specific slice of history. In this morning’s story we read the story of the reestablishment of this community of Hebrews we call Israel. After their earlier history beginning with Abraham through Joseph, they end up as slaves in Egypt. There they languish in suffering and oppression. And then, according to this historical mythological tradition, the community is confronted by God after God’s long silence.

Firstly, according to this story, God grabs the attention of one of them when, namely Moses, when he encounters a burning bush strangely burning but not being consumed by the flames. Moses observes with rapt attention when God speaks from somewhere.

This encounter leads to a greater story which we know well. Moses, the appointed leader of this Hebrew community confronts the Pharaoh and after the 10 plagues are visited upon Egypt Pharaoh frees them and they set off on their 40-year wilderness trek.

God’s called and beloved community finds liberation after that initial encounter between God and Moses, their representative.

A beautiful and important story with a smorgasbord of possible lessons for us today.

We began with the present devastation of Haiti, we have talked about God’s beloved community in oppression finding liberation after their encounter with God through Moses.

Let’s turn, for a moment, to Martin Luther King, as this is the Sunday we pause to remember him together with all the faith heroes of the past, who continue to affect the world we live in and the way we look at life.

As with most of these figures of history, we often find that these people stumble into history unintentionally. Very few of these figures, we will find, campaigned to intentionally become important blips on the world’s historical radar screen.

Moses is a murderer who has fled prosecution when confronted by God. Think of all the great Biblical figures and many are very well known for their human failure of some kind. It is interesting to see how morally outraged certain people react when facts about Dr. King’s personal indiscretions in life are revealed. Often people who would love to discredit him so that their own secret prejudices can be kindled and fed.

Martin Luther King was not a perfect human, but he was another perfect example of how God’s love can be expressed through an imperfect individual. And no matter how hard racists will try to discredit his contribution to a kinder, gentler and more just world order, not only here in our own country, but across the world, he will live on in history as one of those pivotal figures who showed us how God can transform history through us, the “Creatively Maladjusted” members who strive to create communities liberated from evil. Evil expressed often as racism, oppression and slavery, or the evil of personal suffering brought about by individual or collective greed as we see so often in our present world.

Dr King said once:
“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of annihilation; dangerous passions of pride, hatred, and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
God calls us into sacred community with one another. For too long this has been interpreted as “God calls us into tribal communities…” The difference between the two is that the tribal community, which we cannot wish away as it’s a natural phenomenon, tends to follow the primal human instinct of survival that served us well in the evolutionary process that brought us out on the top of the heap. But primal instinct without a conscience is simply that. It will continue to devour until there is nothing left to devour and then it will turn on itself and devour itself.

We are graced with a conscience and a self awareness that distinguishes us from the other animals and in a modern, crowded world our own continuing survival depends on our ability to take that self awareness and apply our conscience in a manner that does not diminish the other at our cost, but that enhances all of humanity and…and this is a very crucial “and”…and enhances the welfare of the planet we call home.

Haiti, Moses, Martin Luther King…quite a bunch of issues mentioned this morning. Let’s tie them together.

The controversy of Jesus Christ which led to his execution was his call to a “maladjusted non-conforming minority” to confront injustice and the conforming majority to apply God’s vision of justice so that human love could flourish in the restored and beloved community.

Just as a maladjusted non-conforming minority confronts the Pharaoh to let God’s beloved community go…so we find this a theme of Christ who demands liberty for those diminished by prejudice through either their social standing, their lack of access to power, or their branding by others as “sinners”.

Liberty is at the heart of God’s vision as expressed through Jesus Christ…a vision of a new order…a new Kingdom, “where the lion and lamb” would coexist as each sees to the needs and dignity of the other, to use symbolic language.

We are a mighty country and we are wealthy individuals even though we might not acknowledge this. Compared to our power and affluence we have seen a neighbor devastated by a natural phenomenon. Is this not also a test of our convictions? Are we really serious about the source and essence of our faith? Let’s see how we personally and collectively react to such a time and place of suffering in the days to come.

The call to create beloved community is not an easy call. It is hard to incorporate neighbors into one’s community especially if they are not like you. It often leaves us wounded and exploited by those of ill will. But it remains our call to answer.

And yes, there is no one else to answer that call than you and me. We, God’s “creatively maladjusted” people—we are the one’s called to not only hear the cries of those buried under the rubble of Haiti, but those who call out to us every day of our lives in the voices of those fellow Americans who live with the shoe of economic oppression on their throats—or who are caught in the strangle hold of racism, diminishing their humanity and leaving their self esteem shattered.

But also hearing the call of the entire human family with its hopes and dreams, its pain and its brokenness and responding appropriately.

The choice is yours and mine. Shall we remain for always part of “the conforming majority”, or shall we answer the call of Jesus Christ to join the beloved community of creatively maladjusted non-conforming minority as we strive for a world in which God’s reign can flourish.

May we choose wisely. Amen.

The agony of a nation still digging out its dead lies heavily on our hearts this morning. For those still trapped the horror must be so great that we can barely stand the thought of it. And yet, our life demands of us to continue on.

Today we pray that your spirit of care and love and compassion break into our lives so that we may understand our calling to be healers of others; comforters of others; extending our hands and lives to others in service—in your name.

Forgive us our own self centered-ness when we are obsessed with ourselves. Remind us, O God, that we only discover our true selves when we understand that we are always in relation to someone else…and that that “some else” is our neighbor, the same neighbor you spoke of when you said: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Sacred One, we desire to do good and to be good but too often we cave in to our basic instincts and our own welfare trumps everything and everyone else. In the worst cases we express this through our materialism and our racism and our common neglect and apathy of others.

But as Moses stood mesmerized by the burning bush, we sense that you are trying to catch our attention too. Is it possible that you are calling us, with all of our frailties and pain and failures even, to stand up and become your faith explorers? Can it be that you have endowed us with much more ability and more courage than we can ever imagine? Then help us to leap into the fray and to swim against the tide of abuse in this world. Help us to swim against the tide of selfish materialism we are conditioned to accept as worthy values. Help us to withstand the basic expressions of our primal instinct to turn to ourselves and to our tribe and to exclude others in the name of our own survival.

Help us loose our lives in order to win them. Remind us that you have endowed us with much more than we think we have and that if we are serious to serve you, we shall overcome and we shall flourish as your beloved community. In Jesus’ name. Amen.