On Saturday, July 21st Lauren Grubaugh was ordained by Bishop John Taylor to the Sacred Order of Deacons in a festive liturgy hosted at All Saints Church. View photos of the service on our Flickr page … and don’t miss the powerful sermon preached by All Saints’ rector Mike Kinman.
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“Entonces extendio el Senor su mano y toco mi boca. Y el Senor me dijo: He aqui, he puesto mis palabras en tu boca. Mira, hoy te he dado autoridad sobre las naciones y sobre los reinos, para arrancar y para derribar, para destruir y para derrocar, para edificar y para plantar.”
“Then God touched my mouth and said to me, “Look, I am putting my words in your mouth. This day I appoint you over nations and territories, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
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“Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.”
So said Angela Davis, certainly no stranger to revolution.
“Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.”
Today we are doing an extraordinary and deeply subversive thing. Today, we are conspiring to revolution.
Today, we are conspiring to revolution by ordaining Lauren Danielle Helen Grubaugh to the sacred order of deacons.
Today in front of God and the people, Lauren, you are committing yourself to a revolutionary struggle not just for today but for the rest of your life.
Today, we are conspiring to revolution.
I wonder how many of us realized that when we got up this morning.
Because that’s not how we treat ordinations. We treat ordinations as wonderful celebrations, and truly, they are and should be. Today, we celebrate that an extraordinary leader has chosen and has been chosen by God and the church to lead. That she has satisfied all the requirements of the canons – that’s not inconsiderable — that we believe her to be qualified for this order and that we rejoice in the new life God breathes into the church through her.
Today, we will laugh and applaud and sing and dance and party – and rightly so, because it has been a long road in getting here. Because God is in the house and God is a God of joy, and that joy certainly is alive in this community and that joy certainly flows through you, Lauren.
And … that joy, that celebration must not apprehensively mask the equally as deep truth that today we are conspiring to a revolution. A revolution that yes, is a revolution of joy. A revolution that yes, is a revolution of love. And, it is a revolution. And if the world took seriously the revolutionary power of what God is doing, what we are doing here this morning the police would be at our door calling this an unlawful assembly, demanding we disperse and hauling us off to jail as we refuse.
If we took seriously the revolutionary power of what God is doing, what we are doing here this morning, there would probably be a lot fewer people in this room, and we would be smiling a little less and trembling a little more.
Today, we are conspiring to revolution. At least, dear God, I hope we are. For the empires of this world have done their level and highly successful best to squeeze the revolution out of the church. To make the church a wholly owned subsidiary of Pilate and Caesar and Pharaoh and their descendants in the palaces and legislative chambers and corporate boardrooms of today.
We have become the church that the prophets and the Christ railed against. Far from revolutionaries, we have become the religious leaders who cry “peace, peace” where there is no peace.
We have become the religious leaders who through our worship of respectability seek the power of domination, seek to be the ones who have the high places at banquets and the company of power, not the company and duty of those who serve.
As true revolutionaries emerge, we are more likely to be the crowd shouting “crucify” or as Pilate washing our hands than following them to the cross.
We are more likely to be the white moderate who prefers order to justice than the prophet smuggling words of revolution out of a prison cell.
As the church, we have become beholden not to the revolutionary call of Christ but to what subversive evangelicals have begun to call the ABCs of Empire – attendance, buildings and cash. In the face of a call of Christ for whom success looks like the cross and the empty tomb … attendance, buildings and cash … that is how we measure success. That is what we hold our leaders accountable to. Attendance, buildings, cash … those are precisely what begin to disappear when the discomfort of revolution begins to take hold.
And yet, today, we conspire to revolution. Today, we are committing a revolutionary act in anointing a revolutionary leader.
Lauren, I have no doubt that you understand this. What I wonder is if we do.
Lauren, I have no question that you are committed to this struggle for a lifetime. I have no doubt that ordination or no you are a revolutionary leader.
The question before us today is – will we just have a revolutionary leader or will we be Christ’s revolutionary church?
The question before us today is – Lauren, will we stand with you or will we applaud as we let you stand alone?
Now Lauren, part of how I know you understand that today we are conspiring to revolution is the reading you chose from the book of Jeremiah.
It’s not an uncommon reading for ordinations, particularly for someone younger – at least relative to the church – like you are, Lauren. It reads like an ordination service itself. God announcing that Jeremiah has been chosen to bear God’s word, acknowledging the struggle that takes place when that happens and finally anointing and sending the new leader. It is very much like what we do here today.
In settings like this, we tend to have a triumphalistic reading of this passage. God touching this amazing servant and sending the servant out to do amazing things.
And here, in front of us, we have this amazing servant. And truly we believe God has put words in her mouth and will continue to put words in her mouth. And we love her youth and we love her energy and we love her! And we love hearing God say to her “Do not fear anyone, for I am with you to protect you.” We love how all of this makes us feel. It makes us feel safe and secure and joyful and wonderful. God is good. God is alive. This is a great day. The church is in good hands. Look at this amazing servant! Surely, she will keep our church going. Surely, she will be the new life we need.
Surely, she will help keep the attendance, buildings and cash flowing!
Except … then we look at the content of the Word that God gives Jeremiah:
“He aqui, he puesto mis palabras en tu boca. Mira, hoy te he dado autoridad sobre las naciones y sobre los reinos, para arrancar y para derribar, para destruir y para derrocar, para edificar y para plantar.”
“Look, I am putting my words in your mouth. This day I appoint you over nations and territories, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
The word God gave Jeremiah was an uncomfortable word, a revolutionary word. The word God gave Jeremiah was not a word people wanted to hear.
The word God gave Jeremiah was not a word that would lead to attendance, buildings and cash.
Because God looked at Jerusalem and saw how the people had fallen away from God’s covenant of radical love. God looked at Jerusalem and saw structures of oppression and marginalization. God looked at Jerusalem and saw that the people who mouthed the words of Torah, who gave lip service to the God who had delivered them out of bondage in Egypt, had indeed become Pharaoh’s Egypt.
God looked at Jerusalem and saw a people who had exiled God and God’s love from their lives and who had substituted their own greed, their own desire for domination, their own worship of wealth and productivity.
God looked at Jerusalem and God loved Jerusalem and God said because I love, this cannot stand.
And God said: “Viva la revolución!”
And so God said to Jeremiah:
“Mira, hoy te he dado autoridad sobre las naciones y sobre los reinos, para arrancar y para derribar, para destruir y para derrocar, para edificar y para plantar.
“This day I appoint you over nations and territories, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Walter Bruggemann says “The book of Jeremiah is … an unwelcome offer. If we enter, we are invited to accompany the painful, genuinely unthinkable process whereby the Holy City is denied its special character and is handed over by the intent of Yahweh, to the ruthlessness of Babylon. Kings, of course, never believe history works that way. Kings imagine that royal decisions can shape public life. But this literary piece asserts otherwise. Because of Yahweh, the historical process is headed toward exile. That is where disobedient history finally leads. No escape is available.”
We proclaim the Gospel of hope. That hope is real. All things are in the context of that sure and certain hope of God’s promised love for us and presence with us. AND … it is important to note that the book of Jeremiah is not a book of hope. It is not a book of comfort. It is a book that looks toward “the captivity of Jerusalem.” The word God gives to Jeremiah is
“para arrancar y para derribar, para destruir y para derrocar.”
“to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow”
… there is no easy way out. There is no relief from the tension. This will be deeply uncomfortable and even painful. The end of the book of Jeremiah in chapter 52 is
Y el rey de Babilonia los hirió, y los mató en Ribla en tierra de Hamath. Así fué Judá trasportado de su tierra.
“And the king of Babylon struck them down, and put them to death at Tiblah in the land of Hannah. So Judah went into exile out of its land.”
This is the word that God gave to Jeremiah. It is God loving Jerusalem, God loving the people so much that God could not bear to let them continue on the path they were on. God could not continue to let them keep oppressing and killing each other. And so God gave Jeremiah the word of revolution. And then we need to look at what happened to Jeremiah when he was faithful to this word.
Two things happened to Jeremiah. First, he was ridiculed and persecuted. For empires do not suffer revolutionaries gladly.
Jeremiah’s own fellow clergy plotted against him and conspired to kill him. And when Jeremiah complained to God about this persecution, God told him, “Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet … it’s gonna get much worse than this.”
And it does. For another religious leader has Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks at the city gate where he is mocked and ridiculed and abused by the people. Jeremiah’s life is continually in danger and, though there is no biblical testimony to it, tradition is that he died in exile in Egypt when he was finally stoned to death by people who were sick of hearing him preach.
And the second thing that happened was that word changed Jeremiah. It was planted in his heart and became a part of him. So much so that he sang:
“empero fué en mi corazón como un fuego ardiente metido en mis huesos, trabajé por sufrirlo, y no pude.”
“within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”
Because that’s what happens when we see the world through God’s eyes and we let the word of God rest on our lips. It becomes a part of us. We cannot unsee what we have seen. We cannot unhear what we have heard. And we cannot stop singing God’s revolutionary, uprooting, overthrowing song of love.
When we see the world through God’s eyes, when we let the word of God rest on our lips, it changes us, its radical nature radicalizes us, it makes us revolutionaries … not just for a day, but for a lifetime.
This is the word that God gave to Jeremiah. This is the ministry to which Jeremiah was called. This is the story we choose to tell on this day when we ordain Lauren Grubaugh to the sacred order of deacons.
It is a hard word.
It is an uncomfortable word.
It is a painful word.
It is a word of revolution.
It is a word, as the word of God always is, that is both eternal and contextual. When we proclaim God’s word, we are proclaiming something deep and old and also something that is born anew in the sacrament of the present moment. The word of God is not an artifact of nostalgia but always intrudes on reality. The word of God always interrupts the power structure of the day, asserting itself over more comfortable words that will cry “peace, peace” where there is no peace, asserting itself over other words that aspire to the authority of the true word of God.
The word of God is both eternal and contextual. And so, when we hear the word of God to Jeremiah, we must look at where we have gone away from God’s radical commandment to love and serve. We must look at our own Jerusalem of America and look for where God weeps and where God rages and where God is saying: “Enough! No more! Viva la revolución!”
We must look at our own Jerusalem of America and see how we imprison and deport and execute God’s people instead of embracing and healing them and we must know God is putting a word on our lips:
“Enough! No more! Viva la revolución!”
We must look at our own Jerusalem of America and see how we enslave God’s people instead of liberating them and we must know God is putting a word on our lips:
“Enough! No more! Viva la revolución!”
We must look at our own Jerusalem of America and see how we export misery instead of just love, rain down bombs from drones instead of manna from heaven, steal the riches of other lands instead of just spreading the richness of God’s grace.
And we must know God is putting a word on our lips:
“Enough! No more! Viva la revolución!”
Our American Jerusalem is not a system that needs some tweaks and adjustments around the edges. This is not a few bad apples. This is a system that needs Magnificat to become less a sweet anthem and more a revolutionary chant and the law of the land. This is a system that needs to hear and believe the word of God that
Quitó los poderosos de los tronos, Y levantó á los humildes.
“the mighty will be cast down from their seats and the lowly will be lifted up.
This is a system that needs to hear the word of God that
“el que dirige como el que sirve.”
“the leader among you must become like the follower.”
We must look at our American Jerusalem and we must hear the word of God to the prophet Jeremiah –
“para arrancar y para derribar, para destruir y para derrocar, para edificar y para plantar.
“to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
We must hear it and knowing what happened to Jeremiah we must recognize that this word is not just being given to Lauren, it is being given to us all.
Jeremiah reminds us that it is God who orders our world, not us. Jeremiah reminds us that it is the radical love of God, not just for some of us but for all of us, indeed for all creation, that is our greatest gift and the standard into which we are all invited and to which we are held. It is time for a revolution of love, one that uproots and tears down, one that destroys and overthrows … and yes one that builds and plants. For there will be new historical possibilities that will be born. This is not just the ending of how things are. This is the beginning of how things will be. And that is cause for rejoicing. That is cause for a great rejoicing.
“Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.”
Lauren, I have no doubt that you understand this. What I wonder is if we do.
I have no question that you are committed to this struggle for a lifetime.
I have no doubt that ordination or no, you are a revolutionary leader.
The question before us today is – will we just have a revolutionary leader or will we be Christ’s revolutionary church?
The question before us today is – Lauren, will we stand with you or will we applaud as we let you stand alone?
Today I choose to believe we know exactly what we are doing here today.
Today, I believe we are ready to stand with you, Lauren.
I believe we are ready to reclaim the revolutionary word of God for the church … all of us … together.
I believe we are ready not just with our lips but with our lives to proclaim that the powers of empire, the powers that oppress and marginalize, that imprison and destroy cannot stand.
I believe we are ready to give up our clothing of respectability and our seats at the banquets of power.
I believe we are ready to be in this world not as those who are served but as those who serve.
I believe we are ready with one voice to say “Enough! No more! Viva la revolución!”
Lauren, it is traditional at the end of an ordination sermon for the preacher to ask the ordinand to stand and receive a charge. But today, we will not let you stand alone. Because if what we do here today is just about you, Lauren, there will be no revolution.
And so, as you are able, I invite you all to stand.
Lauren, God has known you before you were born. And knowing you, God has chosen you for this ministry of leadership in Christ’s church. This day you are appointed over nations and territories, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
This day, God appoints you as a leader of the revolution of God’s radical, uprooting, overthrowing, life-changing love. And yet we know that is not enough. We know that a leader without followers is just someone out taking a walk. And so this day, as hands are laid on you, we know hands are laid on us as well.
We commit to accompanying you into the places of discomfort and abiding together there.
We commit to being with you in this world not as one who is served but as one who serves, serving all people, particularly those among us who are poor, weak, sick and lonely.
We commit with you asking God to put God’s word on our lips and like a burning fire in our bones that we cannot hold in.
We commit with you to being your partners and co-conspirators as God works through us to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.
“Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.”
Today in the name of Jesus Christ, we commit with you to that life, we commit with you to that love, we commit with you to that struggle.
Viva la revolución!
Alleluia.
Amen.
