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The Family Legacy
Sermon by Sandra M. Thomas November 11, 2007, Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill Ezekiel 18:1-20 Philippians 2:12-18
The children of those carried into exile, grew up without the privilege, position, inheritance, education and every advantage that would have been theirs, had their parents not angered God and been carried off to Babylon. Like children of the Great Depression, life was harder for them than it should have been. As they grew up, with less than enough, the choice life gave them was to: 1) rant against the unfair hand life had dealt them, 2) to grin and bear it or, 3) to overcome adversity by developing strength of character. Ezekiel grows weary of the excuses heard on every street corner. “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” Don’t blame me! It’s their fault! “If you had not lost it all…..if you had been better parents…..if you had not made so many mistakes…..if you had been there for me…...if you had given me more opportunities…..if you had come home earlier….if you had coached my soccer team…..if you had given me more spending money” Ezekial says, I’m tired of the excuses……and the writer of Philippians echoes “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” God has no grandchildren….no hangers on to an inherited tradition….no free ride not even for those born into the chosen race. The controversy over what it meant to be Jewish had begun. Were you one of God’s chosen people because genetically you could trace lineage back to Abraham? Were you one of God’s chosen people because your grandparents had lived in the promised land? Were you one of God’s chosen people because your parents remembered the ritual words of the Passover and told you the stories each year? Or were you forlorn, lost and homeless because your parents had been deported and no longer sang the Lord’s song? Ezekiel voices the theological response that we need to hear today. God has no grandchildren, no second generation followers. The family legacy ends where it begins – with personal accountability, personal commitment, and personal faith. When Bill Cosby decries the lack of school attendance by the grandchildren of those who fought for integrated schools – he knows the frustration of Ezekiel. When our great grandmothers who fought tirelessly for the right to vote, look down from above and see young women that do not vote – they know the sheer pain of Ezekiel. When the great grandchildren of those who fought the war to end all wars have learned nothing from their history books and now set out to map the neighborhoods where Muslim families live and worship – rather than live the precious grace of democracy – we know the frustration of Ezekiel. When family legacy feels more like an ATM machine of “what are you going to leave me and how soon?” – we know the pain of the Ancient of Days. In today’s lessons, God makes it clear that nothing gained in the past is ours by inheritance. It becomes ours only when we claim it and live it and invest in it and re-make it into a tradition that changes the world of today. Let’s take it down to a simpler level. The legacy my grandmother left to me was that of women wearing hats as a symbol of beauty and a sign of respect. As a little girl I loved to go shopping with my grandmother when she was going to buy a new hat. We would ride the bus downtown and walk across the street and down the block to the biggest department store in Detroit. Up the escalator and past the shoes and purses we’d come at last to the millinery section. There they had double mirrors with a chair on each side. Grandma would sit on one side, seriously trying on hats. I’d sit on the other side trying on hats and giggling like crazy. It was fun, especially because the hats were way too big for me. At that time all “proper” women wore hats to church….straw hates, felt hats, wool hats, hats with feathers or ribbons, hats with scarves, hats with veils that hung down and hats with veils that folded back – in all respectable colors. My grandmother wore hats on Sunday, but also on Saturday night if she was fortunate enough to go out to dinner. She wore hats during the week when shopping downtown or when she had lunch with friends. She wore hats not only because it was the proper thing to do but because she enjoyed it! (And I think she enjoyed the fuss my grandfather made over the cost of her many hats and the poor birds who had sacrificed their feathers so that she could wear them on her head.) On Easter the tradition extended down to include even little girls. That one Sunday each year I also had to wear a hat, but it couldn’t be one of hers. I had to buy a hat of my own. I desperately wanted to love hats – but try as I might I never could keep one on my head – and while she looked beautiful, I looked silly. Tradition is not wearing grandmother’s hat…..or grandfather’s helmet or great grandfather’s uniform. Tradition is learning the importance of the faith and practice that led them to that way of life – and asking God for the wisdom and character to build a similar legacy in our own time. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. This church which some of our parents built, the hymns which our ancestors wrote, the Sunday School classes we sat through, the way the sanctuary used to look, the money our family contributed – comes to us as a resource, not a legacy. The legacy is that there are new children to teach and they learn differently, there are new youth to confirm and they don’t know our language, there are new time schedules to work around and new missions that need addressing and new leaks in the roof and energy efficient windows available, global warming and a much higher price on heating fuel. So we only deceive ourselves if we think that our grandparents provided for our spiritual needs and all we have to do is come and use the facilities. Garrison Kellor has it right when he says “If you think sitting in a church makes you a Christian, try sitting in your garage and see if you become a car.” Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. We are called to the same weary journey, the tears, the frustration, the temptations, our grandparents faced. We live in the midst of a multitude of strangers who do not share our values – we have given birth to children who have no use for the way we did things – we have a host of new temptations to draw us away – and here, today, we find that our legacy is not secure at all – it is just an opportunity to do a new thing, in an old way – the hard way. Ezekiel says – quit gripping about the hand life has dealt you. It’s not about what you were given. It’s about what you do with what you have. Move to Jerusalem if you want to, stay in Babylon if you must, run to Egypt with the rest – but don’t do it because you had to – do it because God is calling you. Don’t go to Harvard because dad did, don’t join the Marines because Mom did, don’t stay at home with the kids because that’s what mothers have always done, don’t work on Walnut Street because that means success, don’t join this church because your great grandpa did, don’t stay home because your dad make you sit still on a hard pew for hours as a kid. Live your own life – make your own decisions – find your own faith – make decisions with agony and tears – live the values you espouse – be responsible for the days and years you have been given on this earth. In the end, it is not about what you were given, it’s about what you have done. Receiving the legacy of this Christian family means you have the high honor of staying awake at night struggling to decide what to do ….. you receive a lifetime of unsolved community problems to work at …. you have the legacy of marching in formation sometimes and standing all alone at other times…..you have the precious joy of exploring the depths of spiritual joy and anguish…..you are forced to discover a faith that is your own….. you are cursed with being human and utterly sinful…..and living with very human companions who are utterly and obviously overcome by their sin….you have received the opportunity to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling….in a foxhole or your office….in your kitchen or face to face with your life partner…..with meddlesome messy neighbors and crazy politicians…..with problems large enough to end life on this planet….and hatred deep enough to scare your heart still. This proverb we’ve been clinging to – about the sore grapes left to us by our parents that set our teeth on edge? -- we’ve heard enough of that. Our day has arrived. Hear the words written for us in Philippians: “Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” |