WE ARE MANY – AND THE SPIRIT MAKES US POWERFUL
First Week in the Time of Harvest
We begin today another September. For most it is just another day, another end of summer in another year. Yet if we are connected to the way God works in the world, if we find our place in the River of the Spirit, we will see now a season of Harvest. The Harvest will reveal powers of evil and wickedness but will also produce a people with a deeper faith – we will see darkness but we will also see the lights that grow up in the darkness, lighting a pathway for us to follow. As the words of James, the brother of the Lord, guided us through the summer, so now the Book of Revelations will help us find that path of light.
We are midway through Trump’s term in office. The take-over by a wave of racism in this country has caused many hardships. James taught us to persevere and promised that perseverance would perfect us in our faith and in our unity. On the other hand, Trump and his followers are turning their eyes toward the next election and preparing for battle. They have been revealed in their inhumanity and their plan to make America White Again has been exposed by the children in cages at the border, the raids on workers that left children without their parents – and by the blood of the El Paso martyrs. The campaign of lies and false promises has begun to falter on the rocks of reality. Eyes have been opened as Trump and his bureaucrats allow corporations to poison the environment while the Amazon burns. And economic war with China threatens jobs and in collusion with the Russians, the arms race has been renewed, pumping billions into the military industrial complex at the cost of healthcare and education for the people.
Nowhere is the injustice seen more clearly than in the all-out attack on Latinos and immigrants. As the broken promises weaken their hold on the voters, they intensify the campaign of hate in order to rally their supporters. An animal of prey is most dangerous when it is wounded. Scripture promises that the dark soul of this wounded beast will be revealed for all to see in the coming months.
But who stands with us? Who is our help, our rock in these times? From where will come the energy, the moral backbone, the spiritual strength to confront this beast?
The prophet John, imprisoned by the Roman Empire on the isle of Patmos, writes his letters to “seven churches” spread throughout the empire. As we learned from the writings of James, the people of God have been forced from their land and dispersed in small communities throughout the empire – much as the Latino community has been forced to migrate from the countries of Latin America and finds itself surviving and growing in cities and towns across the United States.
In the Bible, the number ”7” signifies “Many”. So, when the prophet writes to the seven churches, he is saying that there are many small communities of faith growing up through the empire. Don’t we see that here? While the large, compromised churches are being emptied and sold and torn down – and while all white evangelicals become the political arm of white nationalism - there are dozens of storefront communities showing up on the blocks of our communities – and a new generation gathers in collectives and communes in new ways to connect with the same Spirit that has guided previous generations through troubled times.
We will see the Prophet’s vision that, in the face of great forces of wickedness and destruction and division, God blesses and heals the people in these small communities of faith. In scripture, God says “I have seen their ways…” – that is, God sees the loss of faithfulness, the jealousy, the petty acts of greed and selfishness, even the killing among the people but, in spite of this, he says “I will comfort those who mourn, restoring their faith. I will give them peace and I will heal them.” On the other hand, God promises “No peace for the wicked.”
The President becomes more and more erratic, changing directions, striking out against even former friends, making new enemies. We see him on television. Yet in the neighborhoods young white men pick up guns to kill people they don’t even know, desperately seeking the status and privilege of a white supremacy that is disappearing from their world. Yes, the “wicked have no peace” – but when their backs are against the wall, they become very dangerous.
The Book of Revelations is not the story of the end of the world – it is the story of the end of an empire. It reveals how God works to insure the survival of his people, of the faithful, of the oppressed and discriminated against. It is really the story of the disciples of Jesus Christ, a people in Diaspora, in battle with the powers – both the political powers and the cosmic powers behind them.
So how will these scriptures help us? This story, again and again in human history, shows something very important. The energy, the driving purpose, the spiritual strength comes not from politicians and pundits, it comes from those who are now feeling the random acts of terror against them and the campaign of slander and hate. The “Seven Churches”, the lights of faithful gathering that emerge in every neighborhood, from El Paso to Chicago, hold within themselves the power to inspire humanity to persist, to survive and to replace evil with good, cruelty and hate with justice.
You can turn off the news, shut off the internet and try to hide yourself from the world. You will not succeed. The air you breathe is burning up in the amazon. The weapons of war are being distributed on the blocks where you live. The jobs you depend on to survive, to feed your families, can disappear in a day within the confusion of global trade wars.
Wickedness must be fought. But you are not a powerless observer. The faith power you generate when you follow the law to “Love God and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”, when you join two or three together in Jesus Name, when you reach out to your family, to your community, to your people – that is being multiplied a million times in a thousand different ways. God asks you to be the lampstands for lights in dark times – and God has assigned an angel for every community of faith.
We have organized our ministries, to defend against deportations, to raise up the right of millions of babies, children and young people to be raised in a family, to organize the energies of thousands of young people to stop the death from neglect of families of color. We have organized these ministries so that God can work through us to reveal the face of the wicked and inspire the spirit of love and justice with which God blesses us.
Look at how the people prepare for the devastation of the hurricane that is coming. Is the devastation of a deportation any less for the family that it destroys? When you are called to join the rapid response team here – and to organize one in your neighborhood – answer the call, get trained, recruit, surround the families to keep the wolves from their doors!
The twenty year death gap we are fighting is not just a matter of neglect. There is a wickedness that sees every family of color as a danger to their supremacy. They hope for the death of a mother from cancer, a father from diabetes, a young person from addiction. They hope for death and they are working every day in government to deliver those deaths! So, when you are called to volunteer in the schools or to hold a health screening for your block in your home – answer the call!
Ministry requires organization – and organization requires organizing: signing up members, holding house meetings, challenging the fear, challenging the despair. Nobody is stopping you! How many have signed up members in Familia Latina Unida? How many have brought someone new to service or to a Bible Study?
All these things are built on faith and faith requires the discipline of daily prayer. God has sent us an angel – let her into your life every day. And when you see someone else in trouble, in sickness or despair, reach out and pray with them – and then bring them here!
Somebody did that when they saw Miguel Perez’s family in pain – and Miguel in the hands of ICE, denying him the freedom he had waited for long years in prison. I am sure that in his long struggle – his long time as a deported veteran in Mexico – there were times he gave up and his family gave up. But this church never gave up, because our angel never gave up.
Don’t worry about how many are with you in church, in ministry, in struggle. If it seems to few, then go out and get more! It’s Harvest time: The Harvest in plentiful but the workers are few – so pray to the Lord of the Harvest for more workers! As we gather here, there is an angel assigned to us. She is lighting us up to show our people the way of hope and the way of resistance. Our angel is one of tens of thousands, lighting up together a people…
Over the summer, in the time of seeking the Kingdom, we looked for the way that Jesus promised, for the faith of our ancestors that brought us this far. Now it is harvest time. The Kingdom of God is here. Hold out your arms and open your hands to hold the light that God is blessing you with. Look up at the sky – see how many are the stars! Each star is an angel and each angel is assigned to a community of faith. God’s army in heaven is lighting up an army of believers on earth: your family, my family – why we have struggled and now we have given rise to a whole new generation. Keep the light on for them. Darkness is only the absence of light so let our light shine so the Kingdom of God can come down to earth, strong and powerful as the darkness is driven.
What you see here, in each other’s eyes, in each other’s struggle, in each other’s love, this is like a bundle of wheat gathered in a field in the Harvest. Just know that God has provided many fields and is gathering many bundles of the faithful. We are many in the Faith. God is bundling together the wheat. We are many and the Spirit makes us powerful!
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FOR THE 1ST WEEK IN THE HARVEST
Isaiah 61: 7-11 They are a people the Lord has blessed.” *
Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours. “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.” *
Isaiah 57:18-21 I will heal them
I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to their mourners, creating praise on their lips. Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the Lord. “And I will heal them.” But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
Revelations 1: 9-20 John writes to The Seven Churches
On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.