Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
Text: Luke 4:1-13
Why renovate? We renovate spaces because something is broken or damaged, because it is unattractive, because it doesn’t function in the way that is needed, because it has been neglected. We renovate to open things up or to create a greater sense of simplicity or peace. We renovate to remove layers of questionable choices in order to reveal what was originally intended. We renovate in order to make something more fully reflect our “style,” to reflect who we are. It doesn’t take much to extrapolate this to our personal lives, our relationships, or to whole communities. Just think about the renovation work needed in your life to repair something that is damaged in you, or to give some TLC to neglected places in your life, or to make changes that will allow you to express more fully and freely the person you really are. Perhaps the thing that most needs renovation in your life is a personal relationship that is broken or that doesn’t allow any space for you to move or that is marred by ugly behavior. Lord knows that there is renovation work that needs to be done in our human organizations—our political system, our justice system, our denomination. So much is in need of repair; so much needs to be opened up to make space for everyone. So much needs to be renovated so that light will shine on injustice, inequality, and brutality—revealing what needs to be abated, cleaned out of our lives. If only it were as easy to abate racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and all the other forms of evil, injustice, and oppression as it is to abate asbestos. If only tearing down the wall between factions were as easy as picking up a sledgehammer.
There are so many reasons to renovate! But there are also plenty of reasons not to. There’s a show on the DIY network called “Renovation Realities” that films homeowners who tackle a big renovation on their own without any hunky carpenter or contractor’s help. The results are fairly brutal; relationships reach breaking points and sometimes the meltdown includes whole bleeped out sentences getting spewed into the unfinished space before someone storms out. The Washington Post T.V. critic writes, “In seven seasons of “Renovation Realities,” the show has rarely, if ever, included the scene known in the home-improvement genre as the “reveal,” because there is never anything to reveal, except excuses. After days of sweat and sore muscles, the subjects of “Renovation Realities” almost always concede defeat. They run out of time and money. The drywall is only half-finished. The granite guys didn’t deliver the countertops. The tiles would not line up, the refrigerator wouldn’t fit through the door. The mostly demolished wall that prevents the life-altering promise of the open floor plan had in fact masked all the plumbing from upstairs, which will now have to be rerouted by a professional…It’s the only home-improvement show that dissuades you from undertaking any project at all; everything is fine the way it is. “Renovation Realities” is a 30-minute excuse to leave the to-do list undone.”[i]
As we begin this Lenten season, we are intentionally exploring the “Renovation Realities” of our lives. We will face head-on excuses and obstacles that can stall or derail the work. In the face of such obstacles what do we do? Our impulse may be to spew bleepable sentences and storm out of the story. But angry, frustrated abandonment isn’t a very creative option—and it leaves us with an unfinished mess. Renovation—of our physical spaces, our personal lives, our relationships, our institutions and society as a whole—will always include challenges, set-backs, and obstacles, some anticipated and others beyond our wildest imagination.
But here’s the thing: renovation is worth it. The work of renovation is the work of making things like new (from the Latin renovatus). Thomas Merton once said that being made new (“born again”) is not to become somebody else, but to become ourselves. This suggests that renovation doesn’t make you and I lose who we are but rather clears away the things that get in the way of being who we truly are. Each one of us—you and I, in all our glorious particularity—are good creations of God, created out of love for a life-giving purpose. But we all need some renovation in order to become more of ourselves—or get back to ourselves—in order to align more fully to the vision God has for us. Each one of us is broken, neglected, or cramped in some way; we all harbor treasures hidden under layers of history; we also hold secrets both beautiful and painful. If we’re not careful, we can forget what’s there at our core. I keep thinking of the extraordinary, original 1904 floor tiles that have been uncovered in what we call the narthex and bell tower lobby. This beautiful artistry was covered over and forgotten for years. It was the process of renovation that revealed this gift and will allow it to greet all who cross the Foundry threshold for years to come. The renovation of our lives can uncover all sorts of beautiful things if we’re willing to do the work and deal with the struggles that will always be a part of the process. Uncovering and becoming who we truly are—who we have always been meant to be—so that we live with a greater sense of ease, confidence, purpose, joy, and freedom…is this possibility not worth the work?
Yesterday, at our inaugural Scholar-in-Residence workshop, the Rev. Dr. Alton Pollard reminded us of the beauty at the core of our nation, a vision captured in the words of our founding documents: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” Dr. Pollard noted, however that our beautiful, lofty vision as a nation has been covered over with the persistent reality of inequality and loss of life based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, education and more. Renovation is needed—“a new birth of freedom” is needed! To make things new in America—using the Thomas Merton perspective—is to become ourselves, who we have always been meant to be—perhaps our truest selves—a nation that actually embodies its powerful vision of equality and freedom and agency for all people. I recognize that perspective is overwhelmingly hopeful—that I’m assuming America’s “truest identity” is that of a nation who really desires to live up to our highest ideals. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author we studied in yesterday’s session, might argue that America’s “truest self” doesn’t need to be “uncovered” or “restored”—but rather is and has been consistently on display through the assumption that black and brown bodies will be currency to fuel whatever economy is on the rise—whether that is cotton or prisons-for-profit; and this, in order to maintain the illusory “Dream” that especially benefits those who call themselves white. There was a good deal of discussion around the tables yesterday about hope—or the lack thereof—in Coates’s book, Between the World & Me. Dr. Pollard reminded us toward the close of our session that as people of faith we have been gifted with the capacity to envision a future aligned with God’s Kin-dom purposes—purposes that are grounded in love, mutuality, peace, and justice; we are gifted with hope. It is up to us as people of faith, to bring a hope-filled vision to the work of national renovation, to believe it is possible for the United States to embody its most sacred and lofty values. Just to be clear—those values include making space for a multiplicity of religious expressions. For us to be driven by and aligned with Kin-dom purposes doesn’t mean imposing anything on anyone—except an all-embracing grace. We are called to live according to Kin-dom ways and that means—in addition to bringing a hope-filled vision for the future—we need to bring ourselves, we need to stay engaged, to be willing to sign up for a protracted, messy, uncomfortable, challenging journey to get there. People of faith have the gift of vision and hope—and we simply must continue to offer those gifts in concrete ways for the sake of the common good. This is what it means to “Opt In”—to choose to engage and to do the work that is needed when you might be tempted to try to “opt out.”
I have often argued that the first temptation Jesus overcame was the temptation to avoid the wilderness altogether—the temptation to “opt out.” After all, who wants to go where you know you’ll meet suffering and challenge and frustration and danger? But the Spirit poked and prodded, in that way She does, and Jesus paid attention and went. For forty days he was tempted to lose his way and lose himself by giving in to quick fixes and flashy finishes, to take shortcuts that might have seemed reasonable at the time. Jesus was tempted to lose sight of what it meant to be God’s child by embracing an illusory vision of comfort, immediate gratification, and fleeting fame. A couple of weeks ago, the lectionary gave us the next part of this story. Jesus persevered in the wilderness and emerged knowing his true self and his life’s work, that he was the Lord’s anointed one, sent to fulfill the prophecies of old, to proclaim the good news of the Kin-dom, and to reveal God’s liberating love. (Lk 4:18-19) Jesus’s forty days of struggle turned into three years of renovation work full of ups and downs, stops and starts, beautiful discoveries, and hateful backlash. But Jesus trusted in God and in the hope of new life. That—and the constant presence of the Holy Spirit—provided guidance and strength for the long haul. Jesus’ whole life was about renovatus, about making things new, about restoring and mending and healing and liberating. Jesus never spewed hate speech out of frustration and he didn’t abandon the project even when it was clear that it was going to kill him.
Why try to renovate our spaces, our lives, our relationships, our church, our nation, our world when we know the struggle and sacrifice involved? Because faith-driven renovation makes things into what they are meant to be. Jesus thought it was worth it. Thought we were worth it. And because of that, we have the capacity to hope in and to live for the promise of all things made new.
[i]Hank Stuever, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/diys-renovation-realities-and-the-guilty-pleasure-of-watching-other-people-fail/2014/05/29/93d5c754-e5b9-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free