Yet Another Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Leviticus 19:18, 33-34 & Luke 10:25-37

“Saints are ordinary people who do what they do for the love of Jesus, say what they must say without fear, love their neighbor even when they are cursed by him, and live without regret over yesterday or fear of tomorrow.” – Mother Angelica

The Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, advised Pastors to always preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. He wanted the powerful truth of scripture to confront the burning issues of the day. The burning issue of his day in the 1930’s was the authoritarian rise of Hitler’s Third Reich in Fascist Nazi Germany.

Because history too often repeats itself, I’m following Barth’s advice with this Sunday blog post (the 15th Sunday in Ordinary time). And I’m “one-upping” him by including a second book in addition to the Bible texts listed atop this post (give them a look). It is an all-time-favorite children’s book by Judith Viorst. But I think that its title and emotion-filled story speaks to folks of all ages. And it surely speaks to the disturbing time in which we are living (far from “ordinary”). Each morning it seems that we awaken to more headlines that proclaim this to be yet another Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

When young Alexander woke up one morning to find chewing gum stuck in his hair, it was just the beginning of what would turn out to be a God-awful day.
+ We learn that Alex fears going to school because his classmates take pleasure in teasing and bullying him.
+ His well-meaning mother fails to feel his angst, leaving him feeling isolated and despondent.
+ At school Alex struggles with his schoolwork and feels inadequate compared to his classmates. He feels distant and out of place. Even his lunch turns out to be a bummer.
+ His home life is no better. Life for his parents and siblings seems to him to be a breeze, while he finds everything to be difficult, frustrating, down right maddening.
+ He finally concludes that perhaps moving to another country—like Australia—could provide a fresh start, one where he could escape his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

While Alexander is a fictional little boy, the grim reality is that today there are plenty of people in America, citizens and not-yet citizens, whose frightened, frustrated and angry inner child feels just like Alexander.
+ Some of them are feeling so frustrated and disillusioned at the God-awful state of affairs at home in America that they are considering moving to another country.
+ Others who have escaped the horrors of another country are just trying to remain or become U.S. citizens, citizens of a land that in 1886 was gifted a statue that stands at its shore. There in New York Harbor Lady Liberty holds a torch/lamp representing enlightenment that leads to freedom. At her base is a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus welcoming immigrants and refugees:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Think abut that image: “I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” I wonder if Emma was thinking of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount when she wrote those words. Jesus exhorts the faithful not to hide their lamp/light, but to let it shine for all to see. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:14-16

When I was confirmed as a teenager, I was given a new Bible by my congregation, and in it the Pastor inscribed a Bible verse, Psalm 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Today the “lamp” that is lifted beside America’s “golden door” by those now controlling the three branches of government reveals it to be a door to an opulent Gated Community. It’s an elitist community restricted to a privileged subset of those who are richer and, therefore, somehow better and more deserving than the “OTHERS” who are worse off, less deserving and un-American.

The lamp that now lights the path for those controlling our nation’s government is not God’s Word. As much as Christian Nationalist adherents want to proclaim it to be so, it is NOT. The lamp that is the current version of America’s idyllic “shining light on a hill” is rather the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 “Wish List.” It is this list that formed the bulk of the One Big Abominable Budget Bill (my words) that our President gleefully signed into law on our nation’s birthday.

I want us to think of this merciless law in light of God’s Law from the book of Leviticus:
Leviticus 19:18 commands, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. Leviticus 19:33-34 instructs, “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

I want us to think of this hurtful law in light of today’s Gospel lesson about kindness and mercy to the stranger who turns out to be Neighbor:
+ The path it lights is a narrow path that accommodates the elite few, while kicking the many outcasts into the ditch.
+ It is an elitist path upon which the “cream of the crop” turn up their noses and cast their eyes away from what they view as “scum” at the bottom of the barrel.
+ It is a Robin-Hood-in-reverse path upon which the rich rob the poor in order to build bigger barns, warehouses, garages and data centers to store their opulent toys and obscene wealth.
+ It is a cruel, merciless, inhumane, immoral and evil path to perdition that pulls the welcome mat out from under Lady Liberty to fund a modern day Gestapo, build border walls, erect concentration camps at home and fund vile and violent deportation prisons in El Salvador and South Sudan.

Today’s scripture lessons shine a bright light on such a dark path and direct all God’s children to cross over to the other side of the road. For there on that “other” side of the road we will encounter a stranger lying face down in the ditch. Kneeling down and gently turning him over we are shocked to be staring into the face of Jesus… abused…bullied… badgered… beaten… bloodied… fleeced like a sacrificial lamb and left for dead, Jesus!

There on that dangerous road side we summon the courage and kindness to perform CPR on our neighbor in need (C:Care and Concern – P:Protection and Provisions – R: Respect and Restoration). And, thank God, his eyes begin to open, and with his first returning breath he says to us, “In as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

+ There along that road side we have not only rescued and restored another person’s life, but we have rediscovered the purpose for living itself. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
+ There on that lonely path, that “road less traveled,” while others seek the road to fame and fortune, we have recalled what it means to truly live the “good life.” “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

I close with this bit of advice. When our little kid, our inner child, wakes up with gum in our hair and we face yet another God-awful, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (of which there are far too many these days), I suggest we occasionally take our own Alexander on a mini-retreat. Make time to revisit America’s model of the Good Neighbor, Presbyterian Pastor Fred Rogers, who left us too soon back in 2003. Recall what a beautiful day in the neighborhood of a true gentle human being can be like. Do a search for Mister Rogers Neighborhood episodes. Look for Won’t You Be My Neighbor documentary as well as A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood movie.

Top that off by joining a “Good Trouble Lives On” rally on July 17, honoring the work of another model neighbor whose work we carry on, former Rep. John Lewis. In all this you will be practicing kindness/mercy while making good trouble. May it be so.

+ + +

“When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country.” – Noah Webster

“In Christian terms, evangelization and humanization are not alternatives. Nor are the ‘vertical dimension’ of faith and the ‘horizontal dimension’ of love for one’s neighbor and political change.“ – Jurgen Moltmann