The "B" Committee

 

 St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Georgetown, DE

Pentecost VII - Proper XII - July 24, 2022

 

This is a sermon about persistence because these lessons from scripture – especially the Gospel lesson and the Lord’s Prayer – are about persistence.

 

So, I want to start with a story about persistence. I was still newly ordained when I moved to Baltimore, Maryland – the farthest south this New England girl had ever lived – and was getting used to the enormous culture shock of living below the Mason-Dixon line.

 

Up the street from my church was St. James, Lafayette Square, an Episcopal Church which was known as “the Black Church.” The Rector was one Michael Bruce Curry, who would go on to become Bishop of North Carolina and then Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church – a first for a Black person in both positions.

 

The first time I met Michael I asked him for advice, because I was newly ordained and he was wise, even then. He told me this story.

 

He said he came to St. James in June and by August, he was feeling like he knew most folk in the church. But, one Sunday, he came in and there, in the back of the church (narthex), was a man he had never seen before – just an itty-bitty old Black gentleman, dapper in a suit and tie, fillin’ up the space like he was six feet tall and owned it.

 

Michael said he went over to him, shook his and said, “Hey there, I’m Michael Curry. I’m the rector. I don’t believe we’ve met.”  The man introduced himself and said, “I’m on the ‘B’ Committee.”

 

“The B Committee?” asked Michael. Hmm . . . I been here since July. I thought I knew all the committees in the church, but I haven’t ever heard of The ‘B Committee. What is that?”

 

“Well,” said the man, “The motto of The B Committee is this: ‘I be here before you came, and I’ma be here after you leave.’ And, THAT, sir, is The B Committee.”

 

This is a sermon about persistence. This is a sermon about how life can be hard and life can be good but life can be worse if we give up.

Or, if we think one person can save us. 

Or, if we don’t understand that we are all part of something larger than ourselves and we are here because we are playing our part in it.

We are part of a covenant – a promise – between God and the people of God and God keeps up God’s part of the bargain and we must persist and keep up ours.

 

That first lesson from the prophet Hosea was a doozy, wasn’t it? Well, as I wrote in my Thursday reflection, it can sound really awful – well, more awful than it actually is, what with all the talk about whoredom – unless you understand it as prophetic poetry.


It’s metaphor and symbol and not to be taken literally. Please know that.

 

Hosea is reminding people of God’s covenant with us which had been broken. The people at that time professed loyalty to one God and yet they were praying to both Yahweh and Baal. Hosea says that is a form of adultery which, he compares to the infidelity of his spouse, Gomer. 

 

And, while he warns that there will be accountability – there will be consequences – there is always hope for reconciliation and renewal. We must be humble, he says, and we must be persistent.

 

In Luke’s Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus for a lesson in prayer. Teach us to pray, they ask. And, Jesus teaches them what has been described by many scholars – Christian and Jewish – as one of the most political prayers ever uttered by a religious person.


Political – meaning good government.


Not politics – meaning the representation of a contingency with a particular perspective on the meaning of good government.

I am not a political scientist and certainly no expert in forms of government or political process.  But in my lay understanding that the political always speaks to how the life of a people is ordered and organized, by whom and for whom it is ordered and organized, and importantly, how power and people interact within that order – specifically, who has the power and who does not.  

 

In teaching us how to pray, Jesus leads us to pray for the Kingdom of God to come, and for the kind of life that is normative for people who live in God’s Kingdom.  We will see what that kind of life entails, but I want first to note the “political” nature of praying in this way.

 

To pray for kingdom-come is to pray for a political reality, and that at least implicitly means – sometimes – to pray against other political realities. Wait! Just take that in for a moment.

 

We are praying FOR a political reality – the way the life of a people is ordered and organized, by whom and for whom it is ordered and organized, and how power and people interact within that order – because our life is not ordered and organized in that way, power is not shared, equality is not reached. YET. Stuff needs to happen. Things need to change. The status quo will probably have to be disturbed.

 

In the model Jesus has given us we pray for the Kingdom where God is Sovereign, as the alternate to other kingdoms and kings.  In fact, we are praying that God’s Kingdom would be established within the present world that is filled with and dominated by those other kingdoms and power structures.

 

In Jesus’ day that included the “kingdoms” of Herod and his family, of the Jewish Temple authorities, and, above all, of Caesar’s Household. 

 

So, not only is this a political prayer – it is a dangerous prayer. It was then, and it is now. Why is it dangerous? Well, I think we can clearly see why it was dangerous then. But, we have no “kingdoms like Herod” or “religious authorities” that rule our lives, do we? Really?

 

At the end of 2021, data show that 1% of the citizens of the United States of America owned almost 2/3 (32.3%) of the wealth. Indeed, by the end of 2021, the richest 1% gained $6.5 trillion in wealth.  

 

That’s not the image of the Kingdom of God that Jesus presents to us, is it? You could at least ruffle a few feathers if you tried to change that, couldn’t you? Might even be dangerous.

 

And, thank goodness, we don’t have a religious authority who tells us that we can’t eat bacon, or we can’t have a cream sauce on our salmon - or, tartar sauce on our fried fish or shrimp - or we can’t tattoo our bodies, or we must contribute the outer edges of our crop to the poor, or we can’t collect interest on money saved, or that seizure disorder is caused by demon-possession, or that the world is flat, or disease is caused by something your ancestors did, even though all those things are right there in the Bible!

 

Whew! Good thing we also don’t have religious authorities with political power to tell us how many children we can have, or define our families, or have a say in who we can love and marry.

 

And yet we pray – or sing sweetly, every Sunday – these words of the Lord’s prayer: “YOUR kingdom come. YOUR will be done on EARTH as it is in heaven.” Heaven – the place of GOD’S kingdom which we want to come here on earth. That is decidedly bad news for the 1% - or for those who want to impose their particular religious views on the rest of us.

 

We pray humbly to just give us what we all need – our daily bread – no more, no less. 

 

Forgive us our sins of envying what others have and we don’t. 

 

Forgive what we don’t do to make sure that no one goes to bed hungry at night, no person has to sleep on the hard ground without a pillow for their head blanket for their bodies, and every person has access to food for their minds as well as their bodies and has access to quality medical care for their bodies, minds and spirits.

 

Jesus says that, when we pray, we can be assured that God will answer our prayers. God will not give us a snake if we ask for a loaf of bread.


But, we have to humble ourselves and ask.

 

Ask, and it will be given to you, he says.

 

Jesus says, knock, and the door will be opened to you.

 

Seek, he says, and you will find.

 

What will it take, we ask? Persistence, answers Jesus. Keep asking in your prayers. But, it’s also important to get up off your knees and knock on a few doors.

 

Get up on your feet and seek out those places where God’s kingdom can come on earth as it is in heaven.

 

Prayer is not just about a lovely little stroll down Primrose Lane with Sweet Baby Jesus Meek and Mild.

 

It is also a prayer to get up off your bed, dry your eyes, wipe your nose, put on your boots, roll up your sleeves and work for the change you seek.

 

Which is why this is a sermon about persistence. It’s about knowing that although there will be consequences and we will be accountable for the things we have done, we ask God to save us from the time of that trial and help us always choose the good.

 

It’s about getting our poor, tired, raggedy, broke bodies out of bed every morning and, even when we don’t want to and don’t feel like it’s even true, we choose to say, “Good morning!” – and then get up and do something to actually make a good morning – and afternoon and evening – become reality.

 

I once heard author Anne Lamott say that about the most authentic prayer we can make at the beginning of the day is, “Please. Please. Please.” And, at the end of the day, saying, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” I think Jesus would like that prayer. Very much.

 

I was listening to an On Being interview with Collette Pichon Battle, founder and Co-Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, an agency she founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina of 2005, which she has described as “a crack in the universe.”

 

She was talking about the persistence it takes to work to bring about change which starts, she says, “when you find the courage to admit that we have taken too much.”

 

Just take that in for a moment.

 

Now say to yourself the words from the Lord’s prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Not the whole loaf. Please just provide what I need.


And then, “save us from the time of trial,” and help me share because that’s what it’s going to take to live out “Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

 

Share, just like Mama said. 

 

So, here’s what Ms. Battle says is her practice of persistence. She asks, “What’s the line between the blame that stops you from action and the acknowledgement that catapults you into doing the right thing? You’ve got to practice that,” she says, “You’ve got to practice that one every day.”

 

Ultimately, it’s about God saying to us, in the voice of that itty-bitty Black man in the back of the sanctuary of St. James, Lafayette Square in Baltimore, Maryland,

 

“I be here before you came and I’ma be here after you leave.”

 

That’s the ‘B Committee’ kind of persistence we need on earth as it is in heaven if we even have a prayer of bringing in God’s kingdom and living out what Jesus wants for us in The Lord’s Prayer.                    

 

Amen.