Time for Mending

January 29, 2023 + Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany + Prs. Craig Mueller and Michelle Sevig

Recently we discovered a moth attack in our basement. Several wool sweaters have holes that need mending. Now, since I’ve never mended sweaters or socks before, we’ve turned to professionals to help with this task of restoring our beloved Norwegian sweaters to their original beauty and wearability. 

God is in the business of mending the universe. That is the way Lutheran writer Dan Erlander describes the God of the Bible. God enters into covenant with us—promising life, mercy, and justice for all people. All creation. Through baptism, we are partners in this holy work of mending what is broken.

Mending might be another way to talk about one of the most well-known verses from the Old Testament, part of our reading from Micah today: “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Part of the mending is acknowledging what has been damaged, what harm has been done. Think of the ways you have been hurt by another person, or by forces you cannot even name. Think of the anger or resentment or shame or self-hatred you may carry. We come together every Lord’s Day to hear the good news that God is the one who heals, restores, forgives, and mends the broken parts of our lives.

The harm done on a social and societal level is often beyond our comprehension because it is woven into the fabric of our lives. Passed on from generation to generation. 

Daily, it seems, we are reminded of the harm caused by gun violence in America. As of today there have been 49 separate mass shootings this month(year), in which 82 people have died. One of the biggest problems, though, is that we have become numb to all the harm done by such violence.

Harm continues to be done to people because of their race, their religion, their gender identity, their sexual orientation. Harm continues to be done to the people of Ukraine. Yet most Ukranians and Russians are nearly identical in their ethnicity and their Orthodox Christian faith. Harm continues to be done to the earth because of our short-sightedness, our waste and pollution of natural resources. As one writer put it, when nature is placed against economics, economics always wins. 

Notice how we are using the word “we.” We are all complicit in the harm. done. Even if we personally are not responsible.

In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus calls the twelve fishermen to follow him. To leave behind their own comfort and walk the way of the cross, the way of disinheritance. Forsaking power and privilege. And living the values that Jesus espouses in the Sermon on the Mount. We have the first portion today, the Beatitudes. Upside-down thinking. The blessed are those who are persecuted, the meek, the poor in spirit, those who mourn. Those on the bottom. And that’s hard when our goal is to always be at the top.

Through baptism we promise to work for justice and peace in all the earth, to join in God’s liberating project of mending the universe. Holy Trinity has a long history of taking stands on behalf of those marginalized in our society, starting with gays and lesbians in the 1990s.

The alternative liturgy we are using today is one way of responding to harm done by sexism and racism. It’s called Sighs Too Deep. Words can harm. These texts use expansive language and images for God and humanity. Recalling the phrase “I can’t breathe” uttered by George Floyd before his death, the image of breath occurs over and over in the liturgy. During the thanksgiving at the table be prepared for a moment of silence in which we together take deep breaths, taking in the very breath of God. Using a different version of the Lord’s Prayer helps us think about the meaning of the text in new ways.

Another way Holy Trinity will respond to harm is our work on reparations in the coming months and years. There have already been forums and articles on reparations in the past couple years, but we will now enter this work more intentionally, seeking to engage our entire community in a process of listening and discernment.

Reparations can mean many things in different contexts. We are only beginning this work, so this sermon is simply a first step in putting this important theme before us. 

One thing we can say is this: reparations begin by naming the harm done. Especially to indigenous peoples and enslaved Americans. Not only harm done in the past, but how such harm continues to affect these communities today. We begin by telling the truth, as did the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu. We need to take a breath before we speak. To listen to those harmed. To listen and learn the role white Americans have played and continue to play in this harm.

Many people think that reparations are about financial restitution. We will get to that in our discernment, but much later. For now, let reparations be about relationships, political solidarity, spiritual practices, and communal listening to where God is calling us in the project of mending what is broken. 

When you hear the word reparation, think repair. 

Think mending.

Think healing. 

Think making right what has been taken or harmed.

We, of course, can’t do this work of repairing on our own. We do so as a community, deeply rooted in theology and spirituality.

We will learn from other communities of faith embarking on this journey. In nearby Evanston, sixteen congregations of different denominations are partnering with the city in making reparations to black residents there. 

The Northeastern Minnesota Synod of the ELCA is in the process of making reparations to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe in an effort toward repairs for past harms. 

Episcopalians in Virginia are acknowledging a long history of support for and complicity for chattel slavery and violence against indigenous peoples and land. There are numerous church buildings constructed by enslaved people and these churches are wrestling with what their role might be in repairing, in mending, in restoring what has been taken from other human beings created in the image of God.

Whether we are the ones who are broken or we are joining in God’s work of mending the universe, at the center of it all is the cross. A sign of contradiction, as St. Paul writes in our second reading. What the world calls weakness is strength. 

The cross is the very sign of reconciliation and healing. Across our differences, the cross makes us one. The cross compels us to stand with all the broken and brokenhearted ones of the earth.

We always begin with God’s initiative. The gospel, the good news.

God, the healer.

God the mender.

God the reconciler.

Our response is to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk reverently with God. Not only in this place, but as we leave. 

As we work. 

As we vote. 

As we march. 

As we love.

Through our baptism, we become co-menders with God.

What a calling! 

What an opportunity! 

What a challenge! 

What a humble task! 

As a community, we have much to learn. 

Much to give. 

And in a stark reversal, much to receive as well:

Through this holy work, and through God’s grace, we receive the healing of our souls, the mending of our lives.