"The Wintertime of God: The Path"
Julie Madden
Sunday, December 17th 2006

I was driving down Xerxes Avenue in South Minneapolis the other day, and one of the houses has a huge inflatable Santa in the front yard. On Friday, as I drove by, I noticed that Santa had lost all of his air and he was lying spread-eagled, face down on the lawn, flat as a pancake. It seems that even Santa can be steamrolled by the Christmas season.

So let us all take a few moments to restore ourselves and consider “The Path.” It is such a central Christian metaphor – the first Christian community was called “The Way.” Since the time of Jesus Christians have been on a journey together, on the path, on the way. Here at St. Joan’s we explore and embrace a low Christology and one of its central precepts is that rather than focus our primary emphasis on the worship of Jesus we focus our energy and our spirit on following in his path, in his way, his journey. In the wintertime, it can be difficult to perceive a path in front of us, in this darkest time of the year. And so we ask what is our path, where is the path of Christians today?

In today’s gospel, the crowds are asking John the Baptist that very question. They press upon him, pleading “what should we do?” And he answers “share your abundance; practice radical generosity” and the tax collectors ask “What should we do?” And he says “don’t collect more than your share” And the soldiers ask “What should we do?” and he replies “Use your power wisely and well.”

Our path according to John is all about relationship - how we live with one another, in the world, sharing our abundance and power and responsibility for the common good. The Biblical definition of justice is “being in right relationship” and this gospel speaks to that directly. It’s certainly not easy – this path calls us to reject the path of our dominant culture and forge a different way.

Individually and communally, we strive to be peacemakers in the most militaristic society in the world; we cry out against the insanity of war and legalizing torture and we pray to love and to try to understand those who maintain that this is the best course for our nation. We strive to be stewards of a sustainable world in a country drunk on consumption. We work for partnership and empowerment in a church built on systems of hierarchy and patriarchy. We strive to be people of faith governed by compassion, while all the major faith traditions struggle not to be defined by the extremists who would polarize and distort the teachings of the great prophets. This is hard work.

So what sustains us on our path?

Paired with today’s gospel are scripture readings that I absolutely love. These readings reminded me that we do not move forward on our path when our momentum comes from guilt or fear. The readings tell us: “be glad and exult with all your heart. Have no anxiety at all – fear not; rejoice and sing. God is in your midst – God sings joyfully because of you. Open your heart to God and the peace that passes all understanding will be with you.” The Lord God is in our midst; God will rejoice over us with gladness and renew us in love; God will sing joyfully because of us.

Our work must be from this deep love, or we cannot sustain it.

Our path can’t be something we consider a way to God; our path is in God, rooted in love. Eric Erickson says: “The way is in you and amidst you.” Nietzsche says: “The good news is not something promised. It is here within you, as life lived in love without subtraction or exclusion or distance. Everyone is the child of God. Jesus claims nothing for himself alone – and as a child of God, everyone is equal to everyone else”. One of the first Sundays we came to St. Joan’s, I remember George Wertin saying “Your salvation is assured.” Shouldn’t that change the way we live?

So we enter into the world full of grace and this assurance that all will be well. Our job is to enter onto the path with all our heart. The saying goes: There is no way to peace; peace is the way. And maybe there is no path. Instead, we will make our path by walking it, by – as John tells us – practicing radical generosity and sharing our responsibility for the common good.

I have seen you on the path, and I’d like to share a few examples of your generosity and your powerful commitment to the common good:

• This fall, you’ve collected 497 coats for local children in need; donated hundreds of holiday gifts to children and elders and immigrant families. And today you sign a petition calling Congress to ensure health care coverage for our nation’s 9 million uninsured children.
• In our Housing Ministry, you have given of your time and skills to rehab existing spaces to create new units of affordable housing and you have mentored families preparing to move into that housing.
• In addition, you are sharing your power by advocating for Heading Home Hennepin, a comprehensive and visionary plan to end homelessness rather than manage it. Two parishioners are pushing us forward even more intentionally on this topic. Thanks to Lonnie Skrenter, we will be hosting a conversation about our response and our responsibility to the homeless people we see every Sunday at 46th St. and 3rd Ave. Parishioner Mark McLellan has approached me about starting a mobile outreach to the homeless called Mobile Loaves and Fishes, and my job is to ask him “what do you need?”
• This fall, Arm In Arm In Africa raised an enormous amount of money to help address the suffering caused by AIDS in South Africa and this commitment is saving countless lives. Matching this generosity, your generosity has also built a Partnership for Justice in South Africa, through ISAIAH and with a grant from our Justice Fund. Recently some of us had the opportunity to hear several South African pastors and community leaders speak about this partnership. It was fantastic – with leadership development and community organizing skills learned from ISAIAH, these people of faith demanded water from the city council, which had been denying water to their township. They were successful. Now that’s sharing power and building the common good.
• Finally, our SJA WAMM/Peacemakers, a group of consistent, tireless and prophetic voice against the war in Iraq are also working to provide necessary support and services to returning veterans of that same war.

May we all be graced with holy hope and holy energy on this sacred path together. Amen.