at the Racial Ethnic Convocation
Big Tent Conference
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
June 2009
Atlanta, Georgia
A vessel heads for deeper waters at San Francisco Bay.Isaiah 54:1-41Sing, O barren one who did not bear; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married, says the Lord. 2Enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. 3For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will of your youth, and the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more possess the nations and will settle the desolate towns. 4Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace; for you will forget the shame.
Luke 5:1-11
1Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
I was driving to a presbytery meeting in a Western suburb of Chicago,
when I came across an advertising billboard
with big, bold letters that said:
“We are expanding…get excited!”
I paused for a moment and thought…
If only that were an advertisement for the Presbytery of Chicago!
Wouldn’t that be cool?!
If only that were a promotional campaign for the PC(USA)!
Wouldn’t that be awesome?!
But no such luck!
The billboard was part of an advertising campaign
for a nearby, river casino: “We are expanding…get excited!”
Unfortunately, these days our denomination is
much less like the expanding casino,
and much more like the barren woman in Isaiah 54.
Our belly is not expanding…so let’s not get too excited!
In fact, the church’s belly shrinks year after year,
as documented by continuing membership loss,
repeated staff downsizing,
drastic budget cuts,
and even mandatory furloughs.
Yes, our church is much less like the expanding casino,
and much more like the barren woman,
of our theme text in Isaiah 54.
Years earlier, the nations of Israel and Judah
had been overrun by the Babylonians and the Assyrians.
The Jewish people had been uprooted from their own land;
their standing as a strong nation had crumbled.
Sound familiar?
Finally, the captives had been allowed to return to their homeland,
but the people of Israel and Judah needed encouragement.
The fruitful and fearless days of their great kings
were a distant memory,
and barrenness and dismay were their daily companions.
Sound familiar?
Yet God used the prophet Isaiah to call the people
out of their despair—and out of their comfort zones—,
so that they might begin reclaiming their purpose
and rediscovering their blessedness!
Isaiah compares the tired and diminished remnant of Israel and Judah
to a tent that needs to be enlarged,
and he encourages them to not hold back…
to not fear…to not be discouraged.
Isaiah tells a defeated and depleted people
to stop worrying about survival and self-preservation,
and to instead get busy with investment and risk-taking,
trusting that GOD will be faithful.
In the face of devastation and lost hope,
the prophet Isaiah affirms that the barren woman should:
“sing…burst into song…and shout…
for the children of the desolate woman
will be more than the children of her that is married.”
It was a tall order for them back then
and it’s still a tough assignment for us now days!
I’m an adoptive mother, and there was a time in my life
when reading Isaiah 54 was painful.
You see, as long as I continued to expect—and even demand—
that God give me the biological children I wanted
(the ones who were supposed to look just like me)
the words of Isaiah were a source of desolation.
But when I was able to let go of my preconceived ideas
about motherhood and children,
the words of Isaiah became a source of consolation.
I will never forget the evening that I went to a local adoption agency
to attend an information session on international adoptions.
The social worker described the programs in various countries,
as she projected slides of beautiful children
awaiting adoption around the world.
I came home that evening and wrote the following words in my journal:
“Dear Child of Mine, forgive me for being so blind.
Forgive me for being so selfish.
Forgive me for complaining that you delayed in coming.
I’m NOT the one who is waiting for you.
YOU are the one who has been waiting for me.”
And so it was that after opening the doors of my heart and my life
to a NEW, UNEXPECTED, God-given possibility,
a BEAUTIFUL unwanted child from another country
became my beloved, adopted son.
And so, I wonder, what unwanted children
is this barren church called to embrace?
You and I who are gathered here at this Racial Ethnic Convocation
know all too well that we represent SOME of the unwanted children
that this barren church struggles or even refuses to embrace.
It’s no secret that although at a national conference like the Big Tent
we have all kinds of diversity present and gathered in one place,
too often on Sunday morning the PCUSA
looks just like the main tower at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta:
every elevator stop looks the same…every floor is the same…
same paint color, same carpeting, same balconies, same plants…
After a while, both the hotel—and the church—make you dizzy,
and you get the urge to colorize the place until you see God’s rainbow!
Now, we can excuse the Hyatt.
But you’d think the church, the community called to proclaim
the good news of God’s WIDE embrace,
would have a clue about how to colorize itself!
You’d think the church, the community called to proclaim
the good news of God’s WIDE embrace,
would have a clue about how to welcome diversity
and—beyond that—how to practice inclusion!
But in order to EMBODY and PRACTICE God’s wide embrace,
the church has to STEP OUT of its comfort zone.
In order to EMBODY and PRACTICE God’s wide embrace,
the church has to ENLARGE its diminished tent,
by LETTING GO of the mentality of barrenness
and EMBRACING a mentality of abundance.
Only then will the church be able to ADOPT unwanted children
of all colors, and shapes, and flavors.
Eric Law, the Episcopal priest and internationally known consultant
on multicultural leadership and organizational development,
has written extensively on this subject.
And in the book Inclusion: Making Room for Grace, Law writes:
“Only when a community operates on the assumption
that there is always an abundance of God’s grace
can it be secure enough to open its boundaries to include another.
An inclusive community must believe
that Christ’s compassion is boundless
and God’s love is so abundant
that God can love everyone on earth
—not just those of us who THINK we are doing
what is right in God’s sight,
not just those who THINK and ACT like us.
God’s grace is extended
to those WITH WHOM we do not get along,
to those who WE THINK are our enemies,
those who WE THINK are sinners.
That is why Christ came
—to show us that God’s grace is boundless...”
Unfortunately, the church too often forgets
that God’s grace is indeed boundless.
And, therefore, the church is more often than not
HELD HOSTAGE by a mentality of scarcity
and THREATENED with barrenness.
This is not a new challenge for the church,
as evidenced by the fishing story from Luke 5.
Simon and the other fishermen had been working all night
and they caught ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
But when Jesus comes along and tells them to...
“put out into the deep water and let down their nets for a catch...”
they CAUGHT so many fish
that their nets were beginning to break!”
This Gospel story reminds me of one of the first times
I went fishing with my husband.
My husband was an adventurous boy who grew up near a river
in the Eastern region of Ecuador,
so he became an accomplished fisherman at an early age.
I, on the other hand, was a cautious girl who grew up in a mid-size city
in the central region of Cuba,
and became an accomplished homebody at an early age.
So we went fishing at Lake Marie, in Northern Illinois,
and after a couple of hours of false alarms,
much to my surprise—and to my husband’s amazement—I yelled:
“I caught something!”
After some technical assistance from my husband, out came the fish!
But, low and behold, it was the ugliest fish I had ever seen,
so I BEGGED my husband to throw it back in the water.
You see, having been born in Cuba,
I knew all about red snapper and other colorful Caribbean fishes,
but I had never seen a catfish.
My husband, who knew better, refused to throw the catfish back in the water,
assuring me that it was really a good catch—despite the unusual look—,
and that some of the people on the shore would love to have it.
And, guess what? He was right!
So, after that daylong fishing trip, I went home empty handed,
NOT BECAUSE there were no fish in the waters,
but because I REJECTED the ones that were biting!
Sound familiar?
In his book God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes the following words
in the opening of Chapter 4, titled “God Loves Your Enemies”:
“Dear Child of God, if we are truly to understand
that God loves all of us, we must recognize
that [God] loves our enemies, too.
God does not share our hatred,
no matter what the offense we have endured.
We try to claim God for ourselves and for our cause,
but God’s love is too great to be confined
to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion.
And our prejudices, regardless of whether they are based
on religion, race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation,
or anything else,
are absolutely and utterly ridiculous in God’s eyes.”
4When he had finished speaking, [Jesus] said to Simon,
“Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
5Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long
but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
Can you hear Jesus saying to us today,
“Put out into the deep water and LET DOWN your nets for a catch.”
Can you hear Jesus saying to the church today,
“Put out into the deep water and stop REJECTING the ones you catch.”
Can you hear Jesus saying to the PC(USA) today,
“Put out into the deep water and start KEEPING the ones you catch.”
And are we ready to answer like Simon saying,
“Master, I will cast the net of your love deep and wide,
and I won’t reject any of your children.”
My friends, you and I are here, gathered in one place,
to BEAR WITNESS to the fact that there are many valuable fishes
that go unnoticed—or unwanted—in the deep waters of this church!
You and I are here today, gathered in one place,
to SERVE AS LIVING SLIDES (or images) of the many beautiful children
awaiting adoption into the belly of this barren church!
And you and I are here today, gathered in one place,
to RENEW OUR COMMITMENT to enlarge the site of our tent,
so that ALL of God’s children can be fully embraced.
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Let us pray...
God of the barren church,
make us pregnant with the burning desire
to welcome all of your children
under one Big Tent, your Tent.
Amen.
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