I was wrestling with the coming Iraq war in that sermon. Today, 12 years later, things are even more dire in the Middle East what with Isis and Syria and the refugee crisis. Thought I'd share this sermon with you as well, just to let you know where I was in my heart and mind in 2003...which isn't too far from where I am now, over a decade later.
FEBRUARY 9, 2003
AN INTOLERABLE
VUNERABILITY
Today’s Gospel finds Jesus in
Capernaum—going to the synagogue for prayers, visiting the home of
Simon and Andrew, healing Simon’s mother-in-law and the townsfolk.
Capernaum was a
village on the Sea of Galilee—a village of those who fished for a
living. First century Capernaum has been largely excavated by
archeologists. When I was in Capernaum several years ago, I sat amid
the ruins of the synagogue St. Mark talks about and visited the site
of what may have been Peter’s house. The synagogue was smaller than
the chancel area of this church—nearly as long but only half as
wide. And the foundation of what could have been Peter’s house was
even smaller. The houses were built almost wall to wall and the
streets of Capernaum were only about four feet wide. What struck me
about the town was how small and close it must have felt—how tight
and confining.
The house was only one room. Peter’s
mother-in-law must have been on a mattress of straw in one corner of
the room. It would have only taken Jesus a step or two to cross to
her and lift her up, healed of her fever. Jesus and the four
disciples with him would have taken up much of the house while
Peter’s mother-in-law prepared a meal for them. Living in that
house would have been much like sleeping and eating and washing and
talking in a space about the size of a modern-day kitchen—that
tight, that crowded, that close.
When we’re told that the whole city
“was gathered around the door”, we need to picture people crowded
into a space about the width of a narrow hallway, stretching away in
both directions. If Jesus sat in the doorway of Peter’s house only
a couple of people at a time could have stood in front of him. A
crowded, tight space—but not too crowded for the broken to find
wholeness, for the suffering to find relief, for those in pain to
find relief. So Jesus touched and healed until darkness fell and all
who sought him had found him.
Its little wonder then that Jesus rose
before dawn to go outside to a deserted place to get away from the
confinement and narrowness of the day. He needed some space, some
escape from how crowded and pressed upon he must have felt in
Capernaum.
*
I was having a conversation with a
friend and parishioner this week and the conversation turned, as most
conversations these days do, to what may or may not happen in Iraq.
I was saying that I was surprised and confused by how the coming war
seemed so inevitable and that most people seemed almost to take it
for granted.
My friend told she’d heard someone
say that since September 11, 2001, Americans had been living with “an
intolerable vulnerability.” The American people, after that
terrorist attack, had—for the first time in recent history—felt
so “vulnerable”, so unsafe, so exposed, so frightened that it has
seemed unbearable—“intolerable” to us. An intolerable
vulnerability….
Since September 11, the US government
has been granted wide latitude by the public for anything that claims
it will reduce this “intolerable vulnerability” and make us feel
somehow safer. With almost no opposition either within or outside the
government, there has been serious, perhaps irreparable, erosion of
civil liberties and constitutional guarantees. All the government
has needed to convince us to give away precious rights is to appeal
to our fears, our vulnerability. We are promised that arrests without
sufficient evidence, illegal searches and imprisonment without the
due process are justified because we will be safe from
terrorists. We are being “closed in” by our fears and
vulnerability.
*
Jesus escaped to the open places
outside Capernaum while it was still dark. He went away from the
crowds and the tightness and the confinement and close quarters so he
could pray. But when his disciples came searching for him and found
him, he returned to the people, to the crowds to proclaim his
message—the message he was sent to bring.
The Collect for today reminds us of
Christ’s message. Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our
sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life
you have made known to us in…Jesus Christ….
Jesus’ message is the
same today as it was in Capernaum. We are FREE from Sin and given the
LIBERTY of Abundant Life.
Freedom and Liberty are the enemies of
fear and anxiety and that intolerable vulnerability. Abundant Life is
life lived fully in spite of fear. Abundant Life is life lived with
the courage and safety only God can give.
*
Personally, I question the morality of
the coming war. I oppose it strongly. It is, in my mind at least, a
war that will be waged, not out of a longing for justice and
righteousness, but out of our intolerable vulnerability.
However, I also
believe most of those who support military action in Iraq are
convinced of the rightness of their point of view. Saddam Hussein IS
a tyrant and a monster to his own people. But there is much that can
be done to oppose and weaken him short of unleashing our nation’s
military might. I believe we need to act out of courage rather than
fear.
We will be no safer after much blood
has been spilled and Iraq is defeated. The damage that this coming
war will wreck will inflame and embolden those who wish us harm.
As a Christian, I feel I need to cling
to “the liberty of that abundant life” Christ makes known.
Abundant Life is life lived fully in
spite of fear and danger. We cannot ever be safe. But all that is
most precious and most real cannot be taken from us by
violence and terror.
In fact, I think there is freedom
and liberty found in facing our feelings of vulnerability.
Vulnerability teaches us humility. Vulnerability opens us to
possibilities beyond returning violence for violence. Vulnerability
can give us access to transformation, to newness, to hope. Living an
abundant life takes much more courage than dealing death.
Perhaps the most troubling part of our
current quandary is how inevitable the coming war seems. Even people
who oppose military action in Iraq seem defeated. “It’s too late
to do anything,” a friend told me about the coming war. “Too much
is in motion,” he continued, “it’s simply too late….”
The vulnerable people of
Capernaum—those sick and weak and possessed of Fear—sought out
Jesus. Their brokenness was intolerable to them, so they sought out
Jesus. And Jesus offered them freedom from sin and fear—he offered
them abundant life.
He offers us no less.
Christ offers us
that abundant life which empowers us to live courageously in spite of
fear and danger, to live with hope and restraint and faith in a time
of intolerable vulnerability. Christ offers us freedom and liberty,
and it is never too late to seek him.
It is never too late to seek
peace—though our country’s leaders seem committed to a fight to
give us the illusion of safety at the expense of our national honor
and integrity. It is never too late to bring the Light of Christ to
this fearful, darkling world.
It is never too late to seek Christ
and to seek peace….It is never too late….
The Rev. Dr. Jim Bradley
St. John’s on the Green
Waterbury, CT 06702
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