Amos 5:18-24
Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.
Bishop Oscar Romero served in El Savador until March 24th, 1980. Romero was seen as a bookworm and a conservative, which were both seen as positives by the church for a bishop in El Salvador. You see, at the time El Savador was in the middle of a bloody civil war. 3,000 people will killed each month, a vast majority were poor farmers killed by an oppressive government. The priests and bishops were expected to be silent about all the violence, but instead focus purely on the so-called “spiritual side” of people’s lives – leading worship, hearing confessions, and such. Romero was seen as one who would hold this line, since he was the pious bookworm and had in fact criticized the theologians who aligned themselves with the farmers and the poor. But Oscar had a life-changing experience when one of the priests in his area was killed, alongside two parishioners, by the government for supporting the farmers’ right to form unions. At the funeral, Romero could see in the peoples’ eyes the question, “will you stand with us as he did?” In that moment, he knew that his answer would have to be “yes,” and it was. From that day forward he ceased being the bookworm that ignored the world and he vocally supported the peasants, through speaking out against the military and the government’s practices. He also begged for international intervention, and even wrote to President Jimmy Carter, asking him to stop aiding the El Salvadoran government, due to its massive human rights violations. But no one listened and Romero was all alone on his quest to help the people that he served. On March 23rd, 1980 he said in his sermon “"Brothers, you are from the same people; you kill your fellow peasant . . . No soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God . . . In the name of God then, in the name of this suffering people I ask you, I beg you, I command you in the name of God: stop the repression." The following day, while he was leading a Communion service, a shot rang out and Bishop Oscar Romero lay dead, killed to silence his condemnations of violence.
No Bishop Romero is not a saint, at least he is not one officially recognized by any major denomination. Yet according to our beliefs, Romero is indeed a saint, for all of us are saints. Each of us is purified by our loving Creator through the blood of Christ’s crucifixion and each of us is empowered by God’s Spirit, empowered to do amazing deeds in this world and each given a specific calling in our lives to fulfill.
One of Bishop Romero’s gifts was in the empathy and compassion which he felt for those around him, which allowed him to be moved to act on their behalf. He also required strength to live out the vocation that God had set for him, and God provided that as well through the Spirit. Likewise, each of us is gifted our own vocation and our own skills, talents, and resources by God. It is in living out these vocations and gifts that we glorify God. It is when we put our faith completely in God and trust that He will provide us with what we need to complete the tasks He sets before us, that we begin to truly worship God.
Our worship of God is not merely the songs that we sing and our gathering together on Sundays and our offerings. No, true worship of God is in doing the work of God, in letting justice roll down like water and righteousness like an everflowing stream. It is in using the gifts that we have been given to us to show the love that God has first given us. That is the very definition of doing justice in the Old Testament, a direct response to God’s action in our lives. It is the teacher who takes time after clas to talk with students who have questions, it is the neighbor who offers to be a prayer partner, it is the volunteer working in the food pantry to help people get food or making a quilt so someone is able to be warm. A recent newspaper article proclaimed that Youngstown is the poorest city in the country. Number one in the United States. We do not have to look far to see people who are in need of God’s love and affection, and we are called to be God’s hands in this world, to show our brothers and sisters in this community that God does care for them and that they are not forgotten.
We are not called to be shrinking violets or a stagnant pond that conform to the world around us, instead we called to be the waters of justice and righteousness, waters that bring about great life to their world and create change. Rivers are home to a multitude of beings, yet also cut away the land that is around them, creating new formations. Sometimes this means that a turn will be cut away or added to a river, and sometimes it will create a whole new landscape, such as the Grand Canyon, formed over the years by water. Each of us as well, empowered as the saints of God through the Spirit, are also called to create these changes, some adjustments and some earth shattering, but all vital to God’s mission and to all of God’s children. Justice is not the static lady holding a scale. Justice is dynamic, it is lifting up those who are seen as nothing by our culture and the world around us and showing them God’s love and compassion and it is being fair in our decisions, instead of bowing before those who would give us the most benefit.
Not all of us will be martyrs like Bishop Romero, who reach international recognition, but each of us is a saint and has our own vocation. In my short time here at Jerusalem, we have already seen two of our local saints join the great cloud of witnesses, leaving us to mourn – Roberta Nelson and Nancy Field. Our lives have been touched by these women and their marks have been made. We have known their amazing abilities to forgive and seen their gifts at work, whether it be in the kitchen or on canvas. Each of us has also lost others in our lives who have touched us deeply and whom have served as great examples of faith, and we mourn their passing and the loss of them in our lives.
Yet we do not mourn as though who have no hope, for we know that while we are indeed both saints and sinners at once, we know that we are made perfectly saints through the death of Christ on the cross and that we are purified through Him, so that we may join with Him at the great feast that is to come. It is that very promise that we bring through our actions in the world, that God takes us as we are, no matter how screwed up or broken we may seem, and He puts us back together and forms us in His image, in order that He may be glorified through us. As the lyric in one of Bad Religion’s songs says, “There is no such thing as human debris.” No matter our level of wealth, or lack thereof, no matter what has happened to us in our lives or the things that we have done, no matter what, God uplifts us and names us “saints.” Our Sin is no longer seen and instead we are God’s own children. That is our message to the world and that is our calling in the world, to honor the name of our true family, the family that unites us with God and with all of the people on this world, with all of those who have come before us and with all of those who are going to come after us, each of them made saints as well. It is out of thankfulness of this that we are to act and go beyond our walls and beyond seeing worship as just the things that we do on Sunday mornings and instead seeing it as how we live out our daily lives and how we make each of our decisions in life. Worship is understanding that all people are our brothers and sisters and that we need to treat them as such and be willing to bring aid and comfort to all who are in need. When we truly worship we live out our names as Saints and we are bring life and change to the world around us, with the flowing waters of justice and righteousness. So let us learn from those who have come before us about true worship and let us stand with them to bring about glory and honor to God and all of God’s family.
Amen.
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