Dear Friends:
Welcome to the Church of Job Within Christ in Laredo Texas. I am Rufus Miguel Sanchez, pastor, for the new arrivals. This is very special Christmas because we are at war, the nation is divided, and some of our most vocal Christians are preaching the righteous fires of damnation for those who don't live in the proper territorial zone.
We have some media people here--treat them well after the service--because they think I know something about the land of the blue and the red. That may be so. I started this church almost thirty years ago after I was sent home from Vietnam with the limp you can still see in my vanity step. I heard too many right holy church people announce from pulpits across this land that Vietnam was a righteous, just war worthy to be fought in the name of God. Vietnam was a lie, a lie that took 50,000 lives. Some of the injured are here today, still in pain and too often ignored by a country that sent them overseas.
I look out over this congregation and see men and women I know to be gay. I see people who are sick and dying--peope who would benefit from stem cell research. I see women who have had abortions because they have been raped, often by relatives. Others simply could not afford another child. I see my own reflection in the sinners who are here today. I am your leader in Sloth and broken promises. I see those who drink too much. I see families who have been abandoned by their dead beat dads.
So I must laugh--and cry, when I listen the virtuous politicians in Washington DC who divide the country into the red and the blue, heaping righteousness and morality on the red, intimating that those who live in the other zone will be banished to hell.
Dear friends in Christ. We have all been had. There is as much per capita sin in our town as in New York City. We have the same weaknesses and strengths. We are probably worse off economically than most of the blue regions. Many of you lack health care. Many of you are working at low income jobs. Many of you have seen better paying jobs go oversees. Many of you have seen your pensions eliminated. Many of you experience daily the rising price of drugs. Many of your families have been affected by the war in Iraq. Some of you have lost sons and daughters. I know some of you have returned to our city only to find their jobs eliminated. I know some of you have been damaged psychologically by the harsh fighting but can't seem to find appropriate treatment.
Dear friends in Christ: we have all been had. The war in Iraq is also a lie. We invaded a country without provocation. We didn't find weapons of mass destruction. There was absolutely no link between Saddam and the September 11 attacks--even though many of you might still think there is.
So we'be been had. Our real economic and family concerns were ignored in the last election that was about terrorism. The government wants us to be afraid so we do not whine too much about our real concerns.
I do not mean that Christians should not have opinions about abortion , stem cell research and gay marriage. But these became red meat issues that were used tby politicians to collect our vote. We were had. Christ would have had no place in this election.
There is a certain danger when a religious group mingles its theology with politics. As you know the literature of evangelical Christians is dangerously postulated in Revelations where only a few of the elect--them--will be left standing after the Second Coming. This is dangerous theology and even more dangerous politics. One of one hand you have an administration talking about mushroom clouds and your have Christian evangelicals talking about a fiery Second Coming. This is a very ominous marriage of convenience.
I started this church thirty years ago because I was troubled by the anger and exclusion that is so prevalent in the Bible. I can hear your grumblings and feet scraping the floor. Go easy now and let me finish. Read the Bible from beginning to end and you'll notice there are about five times as many curses as blessings. I have counted them. I know I part company with some of you when I say I consider the Bible to be an inspired collection of stories, poems, mythologies, moralisms, geneologies written by dozens of writers over hundreds of years. No, I don't believe it's the literal word of God but I believe God is everywhere in the Bible. After all, the Bible is as much about God as it is about man. Whether you believe the story of Adam and Eve--I mean the literal story, it's very clear that Genesis introduces man into the presence and psychology of God. From the first books and early rivalries (Caine and Abel). one cannot but notice the theme of scarcity in the Bible. Lands, food, blessings, and love are all very scarce. In some respects this is still played out in the Middle East. The issues would likely not be so fractuous if there was more land at stake. However you read the Bible, you can't ignore the theme of scarcity, including God'd love that is often withheld, albeit for good reason at times. But the feeling is there and it sticks.
When I started this church I was deeply interested in the Book of Job. As some of you know I carried a Bible in Vietnam and read from Job every night when I wasn't on patrol. You all know the story, I presume. Job is the righteous God-fearing man who, on a whim (suggested by a fallen angel), was tested by God to prove his allegiance. Hundreds of books have been written about Job but no one has really explained why God would so violate man for no reason. God himself says he is the Creator and has the power but that just doesn't seem to be right. Read the Book carefully and note Job's reasoned responses. Job is a modern, conscious man who, though still God-fearing, actually challenges God to explain why He would make an innocent man suffer so. Man introduces consciousness to the Godhead.
This is not blasphemy. Please let me explain. Today we are full of Christmas and most of us can't wait to leave the church so we can open presents and enjoy a big meal. This is quite natural. Some of us have been doing this for many years. Sadly, the Christ child is becoming more and more of a footnote to the occasion. One reason for this, I guess, is that the ritual simply means less in the 21st century. Christmas starts in October and we are bombarded with the songs and sounds. I remember a story in which a German family decided it wanted to celebrate Christmas everyday. This worked well for a few weeks, then everyone got tired and bored. So they hired actors to go through the motions. You can guess the ending. In a way Christmas has become like that for us. It is obviously too commercial. There is simply too much noise.
So think about Job today. Christmas is indeed about Christ coming to earth to save man. But it is also about man saving God. The God of the Old Testament lacked consciousness and God sent his Son to learn from man. But Christ brough a radically new message that emphasized forgiveness and charity. That is what Christmas is all about.
If the politicans want to invoke religion, let them embrace with Christ the poor and needy of this world.
That is the real meaning of Christmas.
And let each of us accept the birth of Christ as a renewal of consciousness and heart in ourselves. One very obvious theme in the Bible, though often ignored, is one of creativity, beginning with Genesis. For centuries the clergy considered man as sinners in the hands of an angry God. Not much attention was paid to the creation and our responsibility to create a a good, blessed, loving world.
Christmas is an invitation to art and making. Let us be new like the Christ child and transform the world in His image.