heroes

here is the sermon I preached this morning at Bond Chapel on the University of Chicago campus:

Heroes

Hebrews 12:1-3

Today, April 4, the world and our nation remembers the death, nay the assassination, of one of our heroes, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. – civil rights leader, political activist, Baptist minister, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. King dared to dream, he had the guts to cast a vision of racial equality, of peace in our world, and of justice for all oppressed peoples. His vision frightened many as equality would shake up the status quo, but this man of faith continued to speak truth to power, he endured the persecution, and he persevered in working for equality - empowered by his conviction that our nation could be just and that our world would be whole.

In five days, on April 9, the world will mark another anniversary, that of the death, no, the execution of a man considered by many to be a modern-day Christian martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian whose resistance to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime led to his arrest, his imprisonment, and ultimately his hanging at the Flossenberg concentration camp. Bonhoeffer was troubled by the anti-Semitism that had seeped into nearly every aspect of German life, and he began to oppose the Nazis, his opposition growing as the persecution of the Jews increased. Ultimately, he involved himself in a plot to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer was a man of hope and a man of faith, who lived and died by his convictions that justice must prevail.

King and Bonhoeffer stand with Able, Enoch, and Noah, with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. They join Moses and Rahab, Gideon, Deborah, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel, all of the prophets. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews introduces us to some of the heroes of the faith who demonstrated hope, faith, conviction, and action.

These heroes are those "who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness" (Hebrews 11:33-34, NRSV).

King and Bonhoeffer also stand with abolitionists Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and William Lloyd Garrison, and with activists Rachel Corrie and César Chávez. In addition, they stand with former President Jimmy Carter, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, peace activist Cindy Sheehan, and our very own neighbor Catholic Worker Kathy Kelly, who all work for peace and justice in our world.

King and Bonhoeffer stand with heroes, past and present, those known to many and those only known to the lives they personally touched – with my sister, with your grandfather, with my American history teacher, and with your best friend - this great cloud of witnesses who surround us, inspire us, empower us, and assist us in living with hope and faith and conviction and action.

And King and Bonhoeffer stand with another man who life was taken for speaking truth and exposing injustice. Another death whose anniversary is marked this week, this week the Christian tradition calls “holy”. This is a week in which we who profess the Christian faith recall the last days of the man, Jesus of Nazareth. We remember his prophetic ministry and his execution for challenging the authorities of the day with his calling for justice. We remember him feeding the masses and healing the sick, we recall him showing compassion to the suffering and denouncing those who profited at the expense of another, and we think of him reaching across boundaries that divide humanity and calling for true community. It is this life and this ministry and even this death of the man Jesus that serves as a model for Christian faithfulness. A model followed by our heroes in whose footsteps we also follow.

Do you see what this means - all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running - and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who bothe began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed - that exhilerating finish in and with God - he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourself flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!(Hebrews 12:1-3, The Message)

I don’t know about you, but I could use a shot of adrenaline right about now. I am weary, worn down from working for peace and fighting for justice. Itr's hard to do as the choir just sang, "to keep [my] lamp trimmed and burning". But I must not lose heart, and neither must you. There is so much brokenness in our world:

• farm workers are calling for a tomato boycott because McDonalds - McDonalds of all companies, with its billions and billions served - cannot, no will not pay them more than a few cents for every bushel of tomatoes they harvest;
• we are far from realizing King’s dream of racial equality in our nation, just look at the controversies surrounding many of the housing developments here in Chicago;
• and we are a nation at war, preparing to "surge" even more troops, 30,000 more troops to Iraq, where we have already unleashed so much turmoil and bloodshed.

No, we must not lose heart.

So my prayer for us all this Holy Week is this: may we hear the voices of King and Bonhoeffer and that great cloud of witnesses cheering us on from the sidelines, may their shouts of approval and encouragement strengthen us and empower us as we run the race set before us, following in their footsteps and those of Jesus, blazing the way for justice and wholeness in our world.

Amen.