The Inconvenient Truth
Rob Gieselmann, Epiphany 4C, Jan. 31, 2016
I have a question for you:
Does Donald Trump love you?
Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians –
which is “First Corinthians,” not ONE Corinthians –
about the nature of love, that love does not
demand its own way. And I’m wondering, when The
Donald looks at you and me, through the television
screen – as it were – does he – well, does he love you?
Now, the person who loves you will tell you inconvenient
truths about yourself. You know – you have spinach
stuck between your teeth, or you drank too much
at the party tonight. And embarrassed me.
Mr. Trump is certainly willing to speak inconvenient
truths, but my sense is that he wants to tell you
inconvenient truths not about you, but about other
people. Like all the presidential contenders – It’s easy
to talk smack about third parties –but what about your
own audience, the people you are cultivating –
When was the last time you heard a Republican endorse
a constructive immigration policy? Or a Democrat endorse
the benefits of modern capitalism?
Does Hilary Clinton love you? The sum of her life is
campaigns,and – shades of truth,and some would add,
insincerity. Does Hilary love you?And Ted Cruz, does
he love you?With his superciliousinsistence that he
and nobody else has it right? Maybe you can forgive
Donald Trump for telling it like it is – for his petulant
Demands about Megyn Kelly and the debate –
People treat him, after all, like a modern-day John
the Baptist – John the Baptist didn’t take noth’n
off-a nobody – Only John the Baptist spoke
inconveniently to people, not about people. And most
people don’t want John the Baptist – not really –
we want people who will hate what we hate.
Not hate what we love. I’m looking for integrity,
though – the unique politician who is going to tell me
that the inconvenient truth that Social Security
won’t survive unless I sacrifice. Who will tell all of us
that we don’t pay enough in taxes – rich and poor,
participating together. When the rich young ruler
asked Jesus, What must I do to inherit life? Jesus told him
the painful truth – sell it all, and give it to the poor.
But first – it says this – Jesus loved him. Jesus loved him
first, then spoke words he knew the man could not heed.
Now Jesus is teaching the hometown crowd, people
gathered to see whether Jesus might perform miracles
for them, too. Instead, Jesus loved them, and told them
exactly what they didn’t want to hear - inconvenient truth.
Messiah isn’t for you. Miracles aren’t for you. Don’t you remember the Hebrew lessons about the widow –
a foreigner – and Elijah helped her during the drought,
and not the Hebrew children. And that foreign soldier
Naaman, Elisha healed him of leprosy, and not any of the Hebrew lepers. God is interested in the outsider.
Do you remember the story of Naaman? He was the
outsider – a foreign soldier – and after Elisha healed him
of leprosy, Naaman promised to worship Yahweh forever.
In those days, one’s god was tied inexorably to land –
physical dirt. Naaman went so far as to promise Elisha,
I’m going to take a wheelbarrow full of Palestinian dirt
home with me, so I can worship Yahweh at home, too.
Such devotion, yet even in the story – there is this
sense that Naaman’s expression of faith would eventually
falter. That he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his promise
completely. Nonetheless, Elisha – with a wink and a nod –
patted Naaman on the back and sent him on his way with
his wheelbarrow of dirt.
And this is the point: God is more interested in the honest,
yet sloppy worship of the outsider than in the carefully constructed worship of the insider – especially when the insider wants to keep it all to himself. Jesus loved them,
these hometown folk - insiders who wanted to keep it
all to themselves – He loved them enough to tell them the inconvenient truth. *I sometimes think of myself
standing in line at the pearly gates – and about who
might be waiting in front of me – as my old seminary
professor liked to say, you’ll be scandalized by that person standing in line in front of you … Who is it you least
expect? The drug dealer? But more than that – I think
about those who in this life have suffered so much –
Indeed, we’ve all suffered – But there are some
who seem to carry on their shoulders a suffering
that is greater than the rest of us. Their souls are bent
double from the load, their gate halting, and life is
simply overwhelming. Day in and day out.
Here I think about my own brother, the one who
was born without a full mental capacity – and how it
has forced him to live a lesser life – never to have
experienced the love of a woman or his own children,
or to have a career … I also think of the long lines
of Syrians being forced from their homes and country
and faith – wholly displaced, while my greatest worry
seems to be Janet Yellen and the falling stock market.
Every day, Mexican children seek a better home here,
spurned and many bequeathed to the desert vultures.
I hope these people are ahead of me in line at the
Pearly Gates. I really do. I hope these people get the
first choice of mansion, the first selection of love,
the first embrace by our Savior whose kind words,
will simply be, well done, good and faithful servant.
I need the love of God to scandalize me – that same love
who declares yet again, I don’t care that you didn’t do it
right. I’m just glad you’re here. And isn’t this what
Jesus tried to tell his hometown crowd that day –
that there is more to faith and God and love than
you think? God doesn’t hate everything you hate.
So why is it we want politicians who do? Who express
our hate? Who talk smack about others. I don’t know
about you – I need an honest-to-God Savior, not
a politician.