00:00:15.040 - 00:00:26.290

I was disappointed last semester when I didn't get to preach when it was the here I stand uh sermon . But I put that behind me and I decided that I was going to do the dictionary text in

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good faithful order. Um but then I read the election every text for this week. And lo and behold it was the first johN three passage which at the beginning of my books I say is the signal

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passage for my faith and belief. So I decided I decided in good calvinist fashion to take this as fore ordained and preordained and I was going to follow this now and so this is kind of a here

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I stand combined with election eri text a little more folksy than normal because of that perhaps. So I want to start out by telling you what troubles me . I'm going to abbreviate this because we could be

00:01:02.740 - 00:01:15.930

here for weeks with me going through this list. It's a familiar list. Um I'm troubled by climate change is a great magnifier. I'm troubled by the projections of species loss of from 50 to 70% in

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this century. I'm troubled by the loss of potable water and the repeated attempts of corporations to buy the Great Lakes and turn water into commodity, which will make oil seem cheap. I'm troubled by a rise

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in hateful and sectarian rhetoric and speech, it seems on all sides and a rise it seems like in violence globally. Um, I'm troubled by the caricaturing and even scapegoating of Christianity and other world religions.

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Um, uh, all these great systems of understanding have been misappropriated to justify exploitation and impression, there's no doubt about that, but no one has, I think exploited or oppressed someone in order to fulfill

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a scripture. They've used the scripture to fulfil to , to justify, uh, the greed, um , and selfishness that they have anyway. And, um, and then the scripture used as if these

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were taught that way. Um uh and not the faith traditions, all the faith traditions being birthed in great movements resisting that and the saints in the classic text of every tradition, speaking against that, the

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scapegoating conveniently isolates those traditions while leaving unnamed the enduring greed and selfishness, which is very powerful as we speak. So I'm concerned as I see globally what looks to be a rise of oligarchies, the rise

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in the region of china and its sphere of influence , a betrayal of Mao and and and his ideals of the people and workers revolution uh in the sphere of Russian influence arise in both these places of a

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capitalistic oligarchy and the Russian betrayal of the ideals of Marx. Um and of course the ideal of the religions that are indigenous to those areas of the world . Um and I'm troubled to see in the west

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what looks to be uh increasing rise of oligarchic um uh dynamics um and a betrayal of the ideals, even of Adam smith by the way. Uh not to mention the ideals of the french uh and the

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american revolutions and of the great religions of of this part of uh the world. Um uh so those are some of the things that trouble me uh and I'm happy to share those with you. It makes

00:03:30.930 - 00:03:44.860

me feel better in a pretty pathetic cathartic way. Um uh I guess maybe most of all I'm concerned about the fact that we are God's now of earth , the future of at least this iteration of life

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on the planet. I mean if we blow it , there's going to be future iterations, there's lots of time, but the future of this iteration of life on the planet is now in our hands.

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In the last 500 years, we have gained unparalleled power. The advance is unlike any other in human history simultaneously. Our social, moral and political forms are really just as, uh, where they ever

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were and maybe getting worse. We literally are the Children in charge of the planet destroying spacecraft. And the hope is that we can get a hold of it, uh, and of ourselves in time not

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to cause tremendous suffering. Um, and damage. Now, I want to say what encourages me because there's an upside and I'm encouraged a lot and this is kind of local. I'm encouraged actually by our

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students, by a lot of you guys, um , and by my colleagues, by all the energy here at the seminary, all the diversity and the passion and the power and the intelligence, uh,

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which especially, I mean, so the faculty, we all come kind of from a certain walk of life, but our students come from all sorts of walks of life. Um, and I see this

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passion and carrying an intelligence and I find that inspiring the same thing when I go out to the churches . And I find the folks in the churches, they're just full of passionate folks who are working and

00:05:03.240 - 00:05:15.370

concerned about these issues and working for justice. Um , are trustees even who are many are elites as powerful folks with resources. Um, and, and wealth could be doing whatever they want. They are

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invested in this institution, other institutions and concerned about these issues. And I'm inspired and encouraged by protesters . I read about across the globe who are taking courageous action, many with a risk and fidelity,

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which puts puts makes me almost ashamed at the privilege . I haven't been able to do this here with all the relative safety I enjoy, but I'm encouraged by them. There's a vibrancy um out there.

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Um, and um, uh, and in that I find a great hope and I see these protesters acting in the spirit of of of Gandhi and Isaiah and Micah and Amos and said Harta, um and

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the saints and martyrs of all the great religious traditions around the world who have over the centuries participated in like and continual struggles for what is loving and just and good. Um, and that's why I believe

00:06:10.350 - 00:06:20.950

so much in this place. Um, and why I think we make a difference. Uh, no matter how small a part of a vital difference, um and inspiring difference that matters. Um, anyway

00:06:20.950 - 00:06:32.060

, that's what encourages me. Um, what I think we need is a and this is gonna sound a little grandiose, but I'm not the only one who thinks this is some sort of a global spiritual

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awakening. Um and I'm not sure that that's actually out of out of bounds, but some sort of the sort of actual transformation uh that once upon a time in uh you know, not so global,

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but similar circumstances gave birth to Hinduism and buddhism. Um and and and another age gave birth to Judaism and Christianity. Um this sort of an axial shift which we find inspiring the profits of Christianity, of

00:07:00.190 - 00:07:15.030

jesus, the byzantium, uh Islamic golden age, um and and the reforms that came his islam. Um again, um uh this is something that's happened before, it's something I need now, and um

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as all of, you know, this is going to lead to emmanuel Livanos uh here, here I move, I make that move. Uh so uh so 11 I think shining, brilliant source of this

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awakening took shape, and this is significant from the very heart of a concentration camp in the holocaust, where Emmanuel Livanos, articulating the convictions of multitudes, uh realized and confess that nothing was more sure or

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significant uh than the ethical reality of being taken hostage by the faces of those tortured and um uh murdered , screaming out, do not kill me uh in that moment, in that reality and that being taken

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hostage, there was a reality which had him which was more sure than any of the systems of understanding , which would dictate to him, that he dismissed . That is somehow something else. Some sort of

00:08:09.960 - 00:08:26.140

a social construction, revolved construction, not a part of ultimate reality. And and my christian appropriation of this reality. What I like to uh to describe was Lebanon's was awakened to having been seized, um

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, and then by love for the face of for every face including his own. Uh, I often , and so many of you have heard me do this. I'm hesitant to do this again, but

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I'll just run through this quickly. I often talk about this in terms of trying to make this visible in terms of if I brought in a bunch of sticks off the ground from outside in the parking lot

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and handed them around and ask you to break them , you would break them without a second thought unless you just kind of ornery and contentious. But anyway , those of you who are not ordering contentious would

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have just done that without a problem. But in this don't imagine this at all and it's a brutal thing. But, but somehow we seem to be awakened more in the face of brutality than not.

00:09:09.820 - 00:09:20.180

Um, so, but imagine I did the same thing with a cat that was bound and asked you to break or hurt the cat. My hope is at that point, you're repulsed. The very thought

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of this. You have taken aback. You almost offended I said it. Um, you know, uh, and that's the face of the cat that seized you. Right? Of course, it's not

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just the face of the cat, it's you having been seized by love for the face of the cat , right? Uh, for most people, even if I talked about a tomato sapling, just had

00:09:39.940 - 00:09:46.610

it right here and, and wanted someone to take it and just rip it out by the roots and kill it for no reason at all. You wouldn't want to do that either. In fact, you'd

00:09:46.610 - 00:09:58.930

be, you'd be offended at that as well. You would be seized by love for the face of the sapling. Uh, this is um, I think a reality that is uh, surrounds us and

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it doesn't have to be horrible examples, right? Uh, you're you're you're in a hospital and you're with a bunch of babies, right, who are just joyful and crying and and and and you know

00:10:09.720 - 00:10:18.160

, and you you see by joy for them, I mean, where you see, you know, just dogs running around in the field and suddenly you're you're seized by the faces. So the faces sees

00:10:18.160 - 00:10:26.990

you. What's interesting here is evil is not an obstacle to the contrary at the heart of the darkest . Evil is where the conviction of the reality of the love your having been seized by in the violation

00:10:26.990 - 00:10:37.790

is as real as ever. It's also there, of course, in moments of great joy, this is a reality. It is as universal and as real and as powerful as gravity. All right.

00:10:37.800 - 00:10:52.020

It's every bit as real as gravity. Um And uh it's not uh it's not sorry, Calvin irresistible . You can can you can harden your heart over time. You can harden your heart so much.

00:10:52.020 - 00:11:03.540

You barely notice any of it, right? This can grow. We can we can harden each other's hearts. We can hard community hearts, but nonetheless , it's there. Um and uh and it is

00:11:03.550 - 00:11:15.330

uh I think a perfect description. Let me do it this way to describe it. Um And this is where a lot of rhetoric, a lotta you leave where you're seized by the where the uh the

00:11:15.340 - 00:11:26.920

face of the other. Again, the the other that has you for the other is this other It's this is what can be left out of the equation that's vital, right? So, it's it's having

00:11:26.920 - 00:11:35.730

been seized in and by love for another. This is a love that's not my intention. It's not from me. It's not my desire. In fact , the moments of horror, I want to look

00:11:35.730 - 00:11:46.770

away, I don't want to be seized, right ? It's a desire that has me for every face , including my own. This is a great description of a gap, right? Nothing wrong with arrows

00:11:46.770 - 00:12:00.060

, Nothing. I'm with specific altruism, all the rest. But this is not those things. This is a gap and insofar as God is love and the gap is God. This this is having been

00:12:00.060 - 00:12:09.910

seized by God for every face including my own. And this is real reality, as are awakening to it in the moment when were seized by it. All right. So, this is something, this

00:12:09.910 - 00:12:20.210

is where I stand. I think we can have other confidence in this. And also you react immediately in the wake of it. If I'm seized in contacts of horrors, I act immediately to try to

00:12:20.220 - 00:12:33.760

act and we leave them. If I'm seized in contact with joy, I immediately react happily and look to enhance and and foster All right. So the this this immediately has that ethic built in. Um

00:12:33.140 - 00:12:43.880

so, um, insofar, then this gets to my definition of faith, insofar as I do not harden my heart. And so far as I live , live right in my actions every day. And

00:12:43.880 - 00:13:00.690

so far as I live, surrender to having been seized in and buy love every face including my own . I am faithful, faithful to a gap. Faith is living, surrendered to having been seized in

00:13:00.690 - 00:13:11.540

and by love for every face. I'll make this a little more presbyterian for every face that elects me right? Uh, including my own right. That's important to Lebanon's doesn't do that piece as well,

00:13:11.550 - 00:13:22.960

but you're you two are taken up in this left all right. So I said as real as gravity part, I want to leave this. Uh so in that sense you realize we're surrounded by a sea

00:13:22.960 - 00:13:35.180

of faces, literally not just human faces, but all faces. Um and um uh and insofar as I think this is a reality, just like gravity , by the way, not just a global reality

00:13:35.190 - 00:13:45.140

, but a universal reality, right? And you know, if there's a creator or if there's just an impulse to life in the cosmos, there's life all over the place. So I'm gonna expect this

00:13:45.140 - 00:13:56.190

reality be manifest in every life form we find across the cosmos, right? Just like I expect them to have some analog for gravity. This is a universal reality. There's no reason not to think that

00:13:56.200 - 00:14:07.100

you take someone to think it, but it's nonetheless as real as that. And um, and so when I think of that, and then I think about the people who were here in the time of

00:14:07.100 - 00:14:18.810

Isaiah and Micah and jesus in Augusta and quickness, right? Who lived in this area or lived along the amazon or along the Yellow River, the Yangtze or somewhere like that. And suddenly I think this

00:14:18.810 - 00:14:31.550

reality has been all over our globe, right for everyone who has awakened to it right throughout all time . And they've come up with ways to discuss it and name it and enliven it or to harden their

00:14:31.550 - 00:14:45.640

hearts to it. Um, and so, um , so this is a global reality. Um, and it's a reality which I think it's this bear description of having been seized by the face of the

00:14:45.640 - 00:15:01.410

others. Um, and here I want to be hesitant, but it actually accords my understanding with the heart of buddhist hindu Islamic jewish because every major faith tradition has this bear information at its heart, maybe

00:15:01.410 - 00:15:13.520

not in these words, but in this spirit. And really what I've just described is something without belief , yet without words yet. So it's faith without content. It's faith, which is just the reality

00:15:13.520 - 00:15:22.910

of having been seized. Of course I'm in the world. So in this, I'm immediately thinking, so now I'm going to categorize I'm going to use words and understand this is how I understand faith seeking

00:15:22.910 - 00:15:37.420

understanding. But but not faith is a product of understanding, not faith as itself understanding or conclusion of reason, but faith which immediately in there having been seized in the dynamic is of course, we're all

00:15:37.420 - 00:15:46.410

caught up in understanding, but then seeking understanding, but understanding, you're seeking and faith, and I think that's what the profits of all the great religious traditions have done both here and you know, for

00:15:46.410 - 00:16:03.460

centuries and millennia. Right? Um so so this is uh faith without belief in its a faith which I think um um um gets uh is at the heart of the great conditions of understanding that our Judaism

00:16:03.460 - 00:16:15.040

, Christianity, Hinduism, buddhism, buddhism, islam and all the rest. Right? Um now, all these traditions of course have had misunderstandings have been misappropriated have, I mean, there's no question about

00:16:15.040 - 00:16:26.760

that, but but that's not the heart of the text that are celebrated. It's not the character of the saints who are celebrated for the martyrs of tradition , we remember right? And none of those traditions

00:16:26.770 - 00:16:44.160

are the people who are selfish, brutal, exploitative , uh destructive celebrated. There's a massive consensus around the globe's world religions with regard to issues which affect billions of humans, right? Without any question,

00:16:44.640 - 00:16:57.940

the idea that the world's faiths are at odds with one another right cuts us off from that fundamental truth , which should then portend immediate action. That's significant . So that this notion of sectarianism among world religions

00:16:57.940 - 00:17:08.380

is not, um, thing, I think, uh, it's helpful for us because immediately, uh , yeah. So what I have next is the threat of sectarianism looms immediately when I start naming these

00:17:08.380 - 00:17:22.830

different faiths as if Abraham Isaiah, jesus said harder blackout and the prophet would all want to fight one another, right? What do you imagine these folks would do together and say to all of us about

00:17:22.830 - 00:17:34.660

this world? Right. Um, so it's helpful , I think, to think in terms of aesthetics and to think of the world's religions, uh, not in terms of competing systems of understanding, taken

00:17:34.660 - 00:17:48.430

whole, you got to decide amongst them, but more on lines of beautiful symphonies, write a host of beautiful symphonies. Uh, and and some symphonies are really bad and we don't know them anymore.

00:17:48.440 - 00:17:57.860

My compositions, for instance, have not gained the recognition that maybe no, but we know what a great symphony is, and we're glad to have more than one of them, right? And we want

00:17:57.870 - 00:18:07.460

a variety of them because insofar as there are about a beauty and expression. David White. This is somewhat for you. So we can see we have some common ground here with aesthetics. Okay. Um

00:18:07.470 - 00:18:18.550

, uh, there's there's there's there's there's something here where we want that diversity. This was the aesthetic thinking is helpful for us. So we have real differences, but not at the level of faith,

00:18:18.560 - 00:18:29.620

right? When it gets the level of understanding and tradition, there's going to be differences, of course , both within traditions and between them, right? But these are not wholesale and we can still celebrate

00:18:29.620 - 00:18:40.390

what's most beautiful and all of them and the way they overlap and celebrate and open us and awaken us and create good. Um, and and then have valid debates where they're different. We can at the

00:18:40.390 - 00:18:53.450

same time, wherever any of them violate a gap , say that's wrong. And that's why you don't have a major world religion, which which does articulate that right overtly. Again, there is a fundamental

00:18:53.460 - 00:19:03.920

issues of what is loving good and just what we should do this first, john passage, right, is right on with everyone, Right? You Love one Another. You don't know God, right?

00:19:03.930 - 00:19:19.330

You see someone who needs, you don't help them . Every religious tradition has a problem with that. All right. There's amazing consensus there. So, um, I actually made yeah, believe it or

00:19:19.330 - 00:19:30.950

not, I got to tell you this is too new agey for me. So, there's a lot of serious thought behind this and you want to read my books a lot of technical language. Okay.

00:19:30.440 - 00:19:45.070

But I call this the flower of faith blooming in the light of a gap. And the idea is , is a center here is this fundamental having been seized in and buy a gap which as yet has

00:19:45.070 - 00:20:00.740

no content. It's just that fundamental moment of having been seized and then each of these pedals represents a different faith traditions. Right? So Hinduism buddhism, even young ones like secular humanism, uh, maybe

00:20:00.740 - 00:20:14.710

would represent here. Have you heard the joke about ST peter going through heaven with some new Hindus and Muslims and uh Hindus Muslims and um uh, Henry's wasn't jews arriving in heaven, They go by one

00:20:14.710 - 00:20:22.490

passage and it's like you gotta be quiet here and why is that? Well, the secular few minutes we're in there, they think they're the only ones here, Right? So, so we we need

00:20:22.490 - 00:20:34.480

to include everyone in so far. And this is at the heart of these new movements to of a gap. So and then with any different shadings I meant to represent, you know, presbyterian, right

00:20:34.490 - 00:20:45.740

? So within the, within the christian, you have protestant and catholic and presbyterian and wesleyan, Armenian and all these sorts of differences all shaded with him , right? But there's this common area here and

00:20:45.740 - 00:20:56.230

as a whole, you know, we have something beautiful that we can affirm, even as we have concrete debates, I think this would be a much better way to think of the world's religious traditions and

00:20:56.230 - 00:21:06.580

that which unifies all of them, spirit, unifies all of them. Um so let me see what I'm going to say about this. This is my And so so this gets us to the passage in

00:21:06.580 - 00:21:18.490

so far as the faithful in my title. So I faithful christian and then I have presbyterian. Um and I'm actually raised Wesley Armenian. So I had trouble putting presbyterian and if ted should be appreciating this

00:21:18.490 - 00:21:29.260

at this point, I just put presbyterian, but I had put quotes around it. So you have that. But the idea is is this is faithful and in this first john passage, when it talks

00:21:29.260 - 00:21:40.050

about love and God without that definition, this is at that level, but then it goes to jesus . All right, So now I'm more specific because I can't just live at that level and it's not

00:21:40.050 - 00:21:51.540

a matter of being everything right? So I am christian, I am a follower of jesus and and that is something I think we can all take due pride in not an exclusive is um pride not a

00:21:51.540 - 00:22:03.210

problem that is put down followers of others who can also be duly proud and following their heroes and martyrs . But following a person who in his teachings and his brilliant life and parables and ministry, right was

00:22:03.210 - 00:22:14.220

true to a gap, true to the face of every other in a context of oppression of empire, even when it threatened his life and eventually took him to the point of death, he did not waver

00:22:14.230 - 00:22:26.870

in his fidelity to a gap even in the face of death, right? Uh that is the fidelity and that is the institute. So there's where jesus is very much like these other protesters and profits who

00:22:26.870 - 00:22:37.740

I am so impressed by, right and I don't feel worthy of frankly, but nonetheless someone who we should all, I mean how have we gotten to the point where there can be any shame at all

00:22:37.740 - 00:22:51.280

in the public sense and, and following jesus um , right in the nonexclusive sense, so, so that's where I first john brings in jesus and the cross, I think in precisely this sense, right

00:22:51.290 - 00:23:03.270

? And this is how I think the Cross spoke to the early community who very clearly understood it as a sign of roman imperialism, a form of torture reserved especially for insurrectionists and those who had threatened that

00:23:03.280 - 00:23:12.550

power. Right? I mean, this is, this is I think very much what was going on . Um, and then I um, I think you have to go further than that because it's not

00:23:12.550 - 00:23:22.380

enough for me just to be faithful and just for me to be christian and a follower of jesus also need to be part of a community, and in a way I'm a part of a global community,

00:23:22.380 - 00:23:30.970

but also, it's important for me to be a part of a church or an Ashram, right, or a temple or a synagogue or something, you know, whichever it is to be a part of

00:23:30.970 - 00:23:38.310

that, uh, and, and, and, and not only um, to be about myself, but to be a part of the time when we come together, we encourage one another. We,

00:23:38.320 - 00:23:47.410

we, this is where the, in the world , but not of it, we are of faith , we encourage other, we awaken each other this love, we concretely minister to each other, and

00:23:47.410 - 00:23:57.820

then we're also about others outside right in the ministry there. It's a, it's a, it's a , it's a way within a world which is very different to manifest the reality of a gap and to

00:23:57.820 - 00:24:10.760

sustain it in our small communities. Um, and , and this is where I think the Genesis 12123 is so critical. Israelites of course struggle throughout two to live up to this, but they really um

00:24:11.240 - 00:24:22.900

crack the nut that I think is at the heart of a lot of current debate, how do I before one group, Right, Without being against other groups? And this text says, you are blessed

00:24:22.910 - 00:24:37.650

and so you will be a blessing, So you can be for America, as long as being for America is a way of being for Mexico and for Canada and for china, and you can be for

00:24:37.650 - 00:24:51.420

Christianity in so far in your local church, insofar as being for Christianity, and your local church is being four atheists down the street and for the people who are not part of your church. So insofar

00:24:51.420 - 00:25:00.540

as we follow this initial call of Abraham, which is, I will make you a blessing, right , puts all the initiative on God, the initial call, and you will be a blessing to all

00:25:00.540 - 00:25:11.900

families of the earth, insofar as we're for ourselves , in a way that's not a blessing were not faithful to, that call, were not faithful to adopt it, but also we will need to organize

00:25:11.900 - 00:25:22.340

ourselves, we do need to be foursome, but we can be for something which is in a way for ourselves, because we count to, but also for others. Um, and then when it gets

00:25:22.350 - 00:25:34.940

this is Miami then, so I'm very proud of this. Uh, never done anything like this before , and all right. Uh, so my daughter , by the way, helped with the drawing,

00:25:34.940 - 00:25:44.840

or it wouldn't be nearly as good as it is . Um okay. Um and and the other thing that's really cool about this, I think is this hole in the world, but not of it is

00:25:44.850 - 00:25:56.830

uh is that we are in the world and our churches are full of people in the world, right ? People who are employees and ceos, people who work on the streets, people who make our laws

00:25:56.900 - 00:26:10.830

doctors, nurses, and everyone is in our churches , Right? And so how we can address all these huge issues I named at the beginning, I have no idea. They're too big and neither does

00:26:10.830 - 00:26:22.230

anyone else and things are moving too fast. This is why I think jesus salt analogy is just perfect because what we need is for all these different people who are in the church from all these different walks

00:26:22.230 - 00:26:37.450

of life to have this vision. This is what they are about. Not increased power, security, wealth, but somehow, a world which will be as as as verdant and flourishing and just and loving

00:26:37.450 - 00:26:48.320

as possible. And in all their different walks of life, do whatever they can to make things better rather than worse knowing they'll never make it perfect. I think the hebrews were genius in making these ecological

00:26:48.320 - 00:27:00.060

visions as scatological were called to the struggle. We can have a hope, I think a reasonable hope that somehow this divine yes, is the final word , but that's not the word that we will accomplish

00:27:00.740 - 00:27:08.800

. But nonetheless not because I'm part of a cause , not because it's how I'm good christian, right ? But out of fidelity to a gap, out of surrendered, having been seized by every face,

00:27:08.810 - 00:27:18.460

all of us and all the different walks of life , we come together, we get rejuvenated, but then we go out and all these other areas and all of us are salt of the earth trying to

00:27:18.460 - 00:27:32.550

work in this way to make things better rather than worse, more loving rather than less loving. Um So that's that's that's that's where I stand. Um and and that's why um even though that first category

00:27:32.550 - 00:27:42.740

of things that trouble me is pretty powerful in my life, I'm often not real happy on the whole when I think of it all and I keep this in mind, I am excited and I am excited

00:27:42.740 - 00:27:52.960

because of everyone in here, because of what we do here. Because of people I see at the church is because of the protesters I read about around the globe who are awakened uh, and and with

00:27:52.960 - 00:28:02.840

the hope this awakening um can spread uh, in a time where we really have become gods on earth . All right. So I wrote my conclusion so , okay, this is good. When you had

00:28:02.840 - 00:28:15.520

, let me always write your conclusion so you can get out this is it. So let's open our hearts and live by faith and take joy and being blessed and blessing others and go forth as the salt