The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for June 3, 2007 (Trinity Sunday)

Texts: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31/Romans 5:1-5

Sermon Title: “It is what it is?”

              “It is what it is.”  That, by this time, over-used cliché has become popular and widely circulated for one very good reason.  It represents an attitude many, many of us maintain.

              “It is what it is.”  The facts are the facts, and we are resigned to those facts. Nothing is going to change.  “It is what it is.”

              For all the coaxing and the threats, the child refuses to apply herself in school.  “It is what it is.” Time to accept the facts and move on.  The man can’t hold a job.  The school system is a mess.  Gasoline prices refuse to fall.  Immigration legislation is likely to pass, leaving no one satisfied. The Iraq war is increasingly unpopular, but no compromise has been reached on how we might extricate ourselves. We are resigned to the facts, war, gasoline, immigration, with respect to each of those issues we say “It is what it is.”

              I am by nature a fairly positive person, but I find myself increasingly resigned to realities that disappoint and disturb me. Truth be told, however, there is a lot going on around me, around all of us, over which we exert little or no control. Resignation may not be the option we would choose, but given particular circumstances it may be the only option available.

              Resignation was not the option that Abraham and Sara would have chosen, but the facts were the facts.  Sara was too old to give birth to a child. The angel of the Lord came to announce to the couple that Sara would give birth, but they clung to the facts as they knew them, “she’s too old, it is what it.”

              Moses, at wits end as to how he would ever lead the cantankerous Israelites to the Promised Land, resigned himself to failure.  “The job is bigger than I can handle, and that is a fact. It is what it is.”

              David, grieving the death of the son born to him out of his adulterous encounter with Bathsheba, refused to believe that his life could be salvaged from the depths into which it had fallen. He turned away all who sought to console him, saying “it is what it is.”

              The prophet Elijah, Jezebel’s death warrant hanging over his head, fled for his life, certain that the death warrant would be served.  When the angel of the Lord appeared to comfort him, he turned away.  The facts were the facts.  He was a dead man.  “It is what it is.”

              When the news first reached the disciples that Jesus, resurrected from the grave, had been seen in the flesh.  Resigned to their loss, and sorrow filled, they would not be consoled.  “He’s gone from us [they said].  It is what it is.

              The resigned, the “facts are the facts” attitude, is difficult to budge.  “I can’t change.”  “They won’t change.” “It won’t change.”

              Now resignation may be in some instances, even many instances, the only reasonable position we might adopt, but in adopting that “reasonable position,” can we really be certain it is warranted?  Must we resign ourselves to the so-called facts?  Many times it would appear so.

              “It is what it is.” We who are members of the Protestant side of the Christian family subscribe to the doctrine of original sin. We believe that through an act of disobedience by our ancient forbears sin somehow found its way into a creation its creator designed to be beautiful and wholesome in every respect.

              Having chosen to ignore God’s law, our forbears, forced to bear the consequences of their action, endured pain and suffering which would otherwise have been avoidable. Exposed to the fruits of sin, deceit, uncontrolled passion, and murder these realities became so entrenched in their experience that resignation took over, and they were unable to see any possibility of change.

              “It is what it is.”  In light of the sobering realities we face today with the world threatened by religious zealots conspiring to destroy any population or institution that fails to align with its doctrines and world view, with a global clock running out of minutes as ecological peril threatens, and with world commerce beholden to those who control the earth’s oil reserves, resignation is a very attractive option.

              Closer to home, the slow restoration of our city, and the disappointments suffered in the restoration process, have gradually converted some very hopeful people into disaffected people whose cynicism is day by day acquiring a sharper and sharper edge.  “It is what it is.”                           

              It is easy to become resigned and discouraged with the prevailing state of things. Resignation and discouragement undermine individual initiative but also imperil communities, governments, civic organizations, sports teams, churches, and just about any other collective that loses it ability to envision a future.   

              But for the grace of God resignation and discouragement could easily have overcome the childless Abraham and Sarah, the overwhelmed Moses, the guilt-ridden David, and the defeated disciples. But grace changed everything. Abraham and Sarah would give birth to a mighty nation, though the journey exacted a great price, the Israelites would one day occupy the Promised Land, the sons and daughters of David would carry his name into the next generations, and the disciples, transformed by Christ’s spirit, would take his name to the ends of the earth.

              To surrender to resignation and discouragement is to ignore the power of God who through his grace opens avenues where you and thought none existed. The “it is what it is” mentality, is by God’s intervention, being challenged, and daily, even when circumstances seem most dire and pointless.

                 Brother Roger of the Taize community in France addressed this when he wrote these words, “Where would we be today if certain women, men, young people, and also children had not arisen at moments when the human family seemed destined for the worst? They did not say: “Let things take their course!” Beyond the confrontations between persons, peoples, and spiritual families, they prepared a way of trusting.  Their lives bear witness to the fact that human beings have not been created for hopelessness.”

                 “Their lives bear witness to the fact that human beings have not been created for hopelessness.”  Nor, I might add, were we created for resignation, which amounts to the same thing.  God is prepared to transform our “it is what it is” mentality into a future alive with new hope and possibilities.

                   Our second lesson directly addresses how God is doing that.  The five verses I earlier read from Paul’s letter to the Romans are among all the words I could read from the New Testament one of the best, if not the single best, summary statements of what God through Christ is doing to liberate us for the future he has prepared.

                     Therefore [Paul writes] Paul frequently uses the word “therefore” to summarize an argument he wishes to make. In this case the “therefore” follows a lengthy section where he describes humanity’s encounter with sin. “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with Christ.” Paul uses the word justified to mean “declared righteous.” We are justified, which is to say the slate upon which our sins were recorded has, for once and all times, been wiped clean.

                  Justified, not, we must immediately add here, by anything we have personally done to earn it.  We don’t earn justification.  Rather, it is conferred as a gift.  Since human effort can’t do it, what will?  We are justified by faith.  Righteousness is ours to enjoy as a gift, and all we have to do is trust that the giver, God, is good to his word. But there is another piece to this justification thing. Once we have, by faith, accepted the gift of justification we are rewarded with something the world can’t give us.

                 We are blessed with peace with God mediated through Jesus Christ who gives us access to the gift of justification. Peace in the sense that Paul uses the term is to will that God’s wills, and that is a gift delivered through God’s grace.

                 To define grace is to define God, for God and grace are synonymous.  Instead of relying on definition to clarify this concept called grace, when taking about grace Jesus turned to a story we have come to know very well. What did the prodigal who wasted his father’s legacy on the playboy’s sports receive when he returned home penniless and forlorn?  Even before he reached his father’s house, his father bounded out to welcome him, making provision for a big blow out party to celebrate the occasion.

Justification, declared righteous, this before he had the opportunity to lift a finger to earn back his father’s respect. The young man didn’t have to do a thing to earn what the father freely chose to give him. 

                 There is another piece to this drama set around the father and son.  Remember the older brother.  He still lived with the “it is what it is” mentality.  From his perspective the brother was a no-account loser who deserved no respect. And why? Because he hadn’t earned it.  

                  Deserving, however, does not appear in the equation, friends, when we are talking about God’s grace, and the peace God wants us to have.  None of us deserve grace for each of us has sinned.  Instead, grace comes to us unmerited because God wants nothing more for us than to enjoy the peace that is oneness with him.         

So charged with excitement is Paul about his experience of grace, that he makes it a cause for boasting. “We boast [he writes] in our hope of sharing the glory [the grace] of God.” 

                 Not content to leave things there, he writes, “we also boast in our sufferings.”  Boast in suffering? What could he possibly mean? “We boast in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hopes does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

               We need endurance and its byproducts, character and hope, if we are to follow the vocation of Paul, and actively announce the new possibilities God provides to an “it is what it is” world. 

                We are challenged everyday to resign ourselves to what we deem to be the givens of life, things like war, poverty, injustice, estrangement and alienation. While these realities are too prominent in human experience to be ignored, there is another reality to which we have been privileged to be introduced, and that reality is grace, grace to accept ourselves and each other as children of a loving God, who through Christ, have been freed to challenge the reigning ideologies and certitudes of the day.

              It is what is?  No, there is more to reality than meets the eye, certainly much more than can be reported in the nightly newscast or spread across blogs, podcasts, or whatever other means the media have to report or share news. The “It,” out there, the reality or circumstance to which we point, exists within the realm of God. Ultimate reality is grasped only insofar as we grasp the lesson Paul would have us to learn, and that is that God has plans for the world that we cannot begin to envision, plans to restore this suffering world to health. If God is sovereign as our faith leads us to claim, who is to say that that outcome won’t be realized? It is what it is?  Now so long as God reigns.

PRAYER

              Triune God, who comes to us in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we see so little of the wonders you have wrought, yet through your Word and Spirit, you have chosen to open your realm to us.  You grant us power to comprehend and reason, to grasp the truth that sets us free. Humbled at the thought that mortal minds might comprehend such truth, the very truth upon which creation is founded, we pray without ceasing that what minds cannot fathom may be revealed to our hearts in some way.

              With the psalmist we inquiry, “what is man that you are mindful of him, mortal that you care for him?” Yet fallen though we are, you do not surrender us to the folly and the sin that so mark are lives.  Like the father who runs out to meet the shame-scarred son, O God, you meet us where we are, in the condition we are in. Grant to all the shame-scarred who are present here today the courage to come to you, and the faith to ask for forgiveness. Where we are not prepared to approach you, for whatever reason, in your mercy strengthen us onto the day when we are willing to trust you enough to reveal our inmost selves.

              We live resigned to war, estrangement, and the curse of alienation when you, O God, call us to a way of life where peace is not the stuff of dreams, but a reality to be lived.  O Christ, our Savior, to those who lived their lives deprived of hope, to all those who lived under the boot of adversity, you preached freedom, but more importantly you demonstrated how freedom might be obtained. You challenged those who were satisfied with their standing in life to take another look at their lives.  To those who live deprived of hope today, and to those who, satisfied with their station in life, live the comfortable life, you offer the same opportunity, an opportunity to enjoy that peace which passes all human understanding, the peace that is oneness with you. 

              Even as we pray for our sisters and brothers who live in peril today in foreign lands, we pray for the citizens of those lands who are daily subjected to the curse of war. Guard, O God, the innocent and the vulnerable that human sinfulness might not assert itself in more killing and maiming. Grant us courage, O God, to stand against the demagogues and tyrants who seek to subjugate and oppress us. Topple the oppressor before his hate can claim more victims.

              We pray your blessing on the scouts and advisors of our Boy Scout troop 150 as they make preparation to embark for Alaska.  Guard them in safety as they participate in that great adventure.  May their experiences in scouting challenge and enrich them, even as they build bonds of trust and solidarity with each other.

              Abide with those who are campaigning for the presidency.  A grueling race requiring great stamina, patience, and determination, grant onto all who seek to serve in our nation’s highest office the courage to speak openly and honestly on the numerous issues we confront today. May they be given the respect they deserve as people who are willing to make great sacrifices to serve us.

              Father God, we are blessed once again to gather in this place, we treasure this opportunity to worship, even as we seek your guidance and peace. In Christ’s name…