Where the Fingers Point

We laugh about it, but for parents it is truly one of the most exasperating moments of early childhood when the lamp (or whatever else) breaks and “It's not my fault”, “not me”, is heard.

...or when one child comes running into the house yelling “He hit me” and the other trails closely behind exclaiming “She hit me, and I didn't even touch her.”

Name-calling, loud arguing, door slamming, crying...we know the whole routine.

If that were confined to youth, those who are just beginning to learn how to deal with each other, it might be tolerable, but the world of adults works the same way!

We can watch it played out on TV:

the marauders saying, “It's your fault that we feel that we had to torch cars, businesses, and homes of our own neighborhoods.”

And others may be trying to figure out retaliation.

Fault-finding, taunting, recriminations, inflated bragging, inflicting pain and suffering on one another...

and there is no one effectively in the middle trying to mediate, to tell everyone to back off and go about things a different way.

Fingers are pointing, just as they do on the children's playground; there it is annoying, here it is deadly.

Now and again we can do the same thing in congregational life: one can say, “It's not my fault about this or that; you should have.....”

It is a game as old as Adam and Eve, and it is a game that is as unproductive now as it was then.

The story in the First Lesson today is true, because it shows how we act over and over again.

It is the game we call “sin,” separating ourselves from God and from each other.

Many years ago, one of our senior friends in another parish reminded me of an old observation:

When we point at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at ourselves!

The very words and gestures which we use to accuse others are also accusations against us.

“It's your fault for bringing up that subject.”

“But what did you do to head it off before it got out of hand?”

Adam blamed Eve.

Eve blamed the snake.

The snake didn't get a chance to blame,

but the blame that is passed off rightly comes back to Adam and Eve, and all their descendants.

Let's take this image of the accusing finger and look at things from God's side.

He points to us with his proper accusations.

His is the call for justice where we work injustice.

His is the voice of truth where we cover things with a smothering blanket of false pretense.

And there are also fingers in the hand of God which point back to him, however; fingers which say, “You have given these humans freedom – which they can misuse, to be sure – but the freedom to say No even to you, Lord God.

Also, your promise to them is to not overcome them with your rightful anger, but to transform them with your mercy and love.

Don't forget these things, Lord.”

Do we really want to pray for God to treat us justly?

That would be terrible!

What we need is God's mercy. And a fresh start.

There is one note of Good News which the Gospel lessons today strikes, in the song of forgiveness,

the story of creation renewed, the goal of wholeness and unity of God with his whole creation.

It is God's accusing hand now transformed into a hand of blessing:

“I give you all you need,” the Lord says to us.

“In spite of what you have been and done, now I would welcome you back.”

That very change, the stern hand of judgment giving way to the open hand of welcome, is the best sort of news for us and also the pattern for our new lives.

Following God's example, the possibilities are now in front of us to act in that sort of way in our relationships;

to replace finger-pointing with active listening;

to replace condemnation with words that work toward working together.

The church is to be a signpost in the world of that new way of living:

- a sign of creation restored to peace, shalom, wholeness.

- a sign of open hands,

- a sign of the way things will be when God's kingdom is complete.

This is why the sign of sharing the peace has been re-introduced in church.

It is not enough to simply talk about and wish for peace.

We need to begin to act it out here in worship.

With our words, and our handshake or embrace here, together, we are practicing for the way in which we will act in the community the rest of the week;

and maybe, just maybe, it will be God's word in our mouth and hand that will turn around a troublesome situation.

Baltimore needs that; Williamsport needs that; your lives and mine need that!

Our prayer should be that God will open our eyes to other paths to follow, other things to say, other messages from God.

Now and again, a reminder of this can even come to us from outside the church.

We have named various persons suffering in India at the hand of Hindu mobs, but that is not every Hindu's attitude.

One of our missionaries reports riding in India in a Second Class train car, where across the aisle a poor Hindu was seated.

In India, people have been rigidly separated from each other by the caste system.

One is not allowed to associate with a person of a lower caste.

But this Hindu had a loaf of bread which he unwrapped gently and broke off a portion and, against all social conventions, offered it to the missionary.

“Take, eat, good,” he said.

And the missionary graciously received it and ate.

The little incident is marvelous, for it points us to several thoughts:

(1)We can reflect on our Holy Communion as a continuing sign of community that finally will be made whole, complete, a shared life.

“Take, eat, good,” is God's Good Word to each of us.

(2)Remembering the summary statements in Genesis 1,”Good” is God's first pronouncement on his creation.

By God's grace, it will also be his word to us at the end!

You see, God's hand not only points at us accusingly, but thankfully, he also opens his hand and beckons to us with welcome and forgiveness...

For which we fervently pray, “May it be so...Amen.”

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.