St. James the Elder
Apostle Mark 10:35-45; I Kings 19:9-18; Acts 11:27-12:3a
Into the wilderness went Elijah. Fleeing for his life. Queen Jezebel had promised to do to him what he had just done to her prophets. Into the wilderness he went. Fleeing for his life. And there in the wilderness cave where he was hiding the Word of the Lord came to him in the form of a question. "What are you doing here, Elijah?
I have just returned from the wilderness of South Dakota. A journey of 8 days with 7 high school girls. And I have to tell you that I can relate to the question Elijah asked himself. Last Sunday we arrived at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of the Oglala Sioux. Our first stop to meet our three guides during our stay was at Pinky's Store. The commercial/social/political center of Manderson, South Dakota. As we pulled into the dusty 100 degree parking lot there were three "res" dwellers sitting under the only shade tree. We got out of the vans and waited for our guides. One of the men sitting under the tree gestured at my license plates and said, "Illinois! What are you doing here?" One day we had lunch at Bette's Kitchen. The only restaurant in the Manderson area advertising the daily specials on the 100,000 watt KILI-FM radio. The voice of the Sioux Nation When you eat at Bette's Kitchen you literally eat in Bette's kitchen. Or at least the living/eating area just off the kitchen in her trailer. We went for the Buffalo burgers. While we ate two trucks of the prairie fire fighters pulled in to pick up their lunch orders. One of the "res" fire fighters nodded at our license plates and said, "Illinois! What are you doing here?"
The short answer was that we were there to participate in a week long servant camp part of a program on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the last 20 years directed by Outlaw Ranch. One of our Lutheran camps based in Custer, South Dakota. Into the wilderness went Elijah. We came into the wild of the Badlands. Out of the urban and into the rural. Very rural. Elijah declared that he had been zealous for the Lord. And the Word told him to step outside his cave for the Lord was going to pass by. We went to South Dakota unsure of what we would find but we knew were stepping out of our suburban world. Unbeknownst to us, only days before we arrived a violent wind storm had stripped part of the roof off the trailer we were supposed to stay in. So the Manderson School system (advised by Pinky Clifford of Pinky's Store) gave us use of a converted house normally used for special class and program instruction located next to the school. We went to the wilderness of South Dakota. For almost all the teens it was the longest road trip they had ever taken. It was their first time in South Dakota (for some, unbelievably, also their first time even passing through Minnesota). No air conditioning, no shopping malls, no microwave. Lots of heat. Lots of water bottles. Lots of fans.
Elijah in the wilderness was told that the Lord God. Creator of the Universe. Source of all life. Omnipotent. Omniscient. Eternal and Absolute. Transcendent and Holy was about to pass by. To be revealed to Elijah. He stepped outside the cave and waited. There came a mighty wind, a great earthquake, a furious fire. But the Lord God was not in any of the expected forms of power that were manifest. After a couple days on the reservation one evening one of the teens observed that she had expected things to be far worse than we found them. She explained that she had expected homeless people on the streets and people begging like in Chicago. One of our guides pointed out that the reservation has an 85-90% unemployment rate. That means a lot of poverty and homelessness. But the Indian culture welcomes all tribal family into the home. She told us that many of the one and two bedroom houses in the small town had as many as twenty people sleeping on the floors using almost every room. Everyone slept on floor mats. Just like us in our house. Furthermore, there really were no streets in town to beg on. And really no one to beg from who was not part of the tribe. Stereotypes and expectations were redefined with every encounter and activity
Elijah had come into the wilderness afraid. He came seeking safety and a sign from God, some hope for the future. He expected to encounter God in certain familiar forms. But that did not happen. Wind. Quake. Fire. All expectations were dismissed. Ultimately he was left with silence. We entered the Badlands turning south off I-90 onto the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. And in our vans there came a great silence. All cell phones lost signal service. No voice mail,no text messages,no phone calls. The only phone that worked was the wired kitchen phone in the house where we stayed. But into the silence came the voice of our guides. Three young adult college students who had lived on the "Res" for two months. They told us about and introduced us to the people who were our neighbors. They guided us to the tasks that Pinky and the tribe had invited us to share in doing, and most important they helped us to listen, to hear things we had not expected to hear.
People of faith are constantly confronted by the unexpected word of God. For Elijah it was the unexpected word in the wilderness. The amazing word from the silence. In our Gospel lesson we focus especially this day on Jesus turning to James and the other disciples. In particular James and his younger brother John. And Jesus declares that the source of true power comes from service, from understanding what it means to be a servant to others. We were attending a servant camp. It is important to understand that this was not a work camp or a project camp. The purpose was not so much to do as to serve the community. Our teens went into the wilderness intent on doing something, doing something to save the reservation in some small way. Before we went the question was "What needs to be done?" As we planned the trip many asked that question. "What will you be doing?" Some even wanted to be sure that certain tasks were on the agenda or they weren't interested. To plan our lives, to define our tasks, to fix the problems, to solve the need. "What can we do?" In our Gospel today two disciples. James and John came to Jesus claiming their place in the kingdom and declaring their power to do what needed to be done to be worthy of those positions of power. Jesus assures them that their zeal is great and appreciated but there is far more to serving than doing. The disciples had witnessed all the things that Jesus had done. Healing, feeding, comforting, empowering others. And they wanted to claim their place by doing similar deeds. Jesus assured them as he assures us that the doing of deeds is important.
But there is also the meaning of the act. Is it an action intended to show power over another or to add another credential to the resume or is it a true act of service that opens oneself to another, that risks finding and leaving some tasks only begun, of doing in a form that is on the terms of the one served. The servant listens to the one to be served, the servant does not tell others what needs to be done or built or fixed but responds to the need in a form and manner appropriate to the moment. We did projects. Scraped and painted the deck and windows and doors for an 84 year old widower. And we did a good job in 104 degree heat, but more important was the fact that we got to know Uncle Tommy. That's what everyone called him, and we were invited to do likewise. Our teens planned crafts and games that embraced the orphans and foster children of the St. Francis Home in Manderson. Activities that served these school age children and made our young people the source of warm embraces, loving touches, great laughter and squeals of joy.
James and John wanted the power of place and project. Jesus said first learn to serve. Understand that service is not for your comfort, convenience, merit or even planning. Service is listening to the other, getting to know the other, responding to the other. In the still silence of the wilderness outside his cave Elijah heard a word of hope and promise. In the midst of major unemployment, distinct poverty, our teens heard and saw something more. As our week came to a close several teens expressed a wish that they could live here, that they could bring back others to see this and be part of it and to meet Pinky, Matthew (age 14) and his older brother Paul Plume. Michael Wild Horses and Uncle Tommy.
And Elijah heard in the silence the possibility of hearing a new word. A word of hope. A word that told him he was not alone. God had not deserted his people. We heard voices too. Voices that again and again thanked the teens for their willingness to work, praised them for being willing to step outside their culture, comforts and familiar places, to listen to other voices. We discovered that the servant camp was not about serving others but serving God. Building homes and painting decks were nice gestures, but the real need is not for good works but for listening hearts. The most important moments were not the work projects but the conversations, the games, and the silent meditation of a setting sun while standing on the hill top cemetery that marks the mass grave of those killed in the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890. Of listening to the stories of survival and the promising futures of students at the Oglala Sioux College. "What are you doing here?" There are so many ways we might plan to answer that question, but our lessons for today invite us to consider waiting before we speak, pausing to listen. Listen as many have before us to the noise and bluster and sounds of powers, the promises and treaties offered to solve the need we have identified. Promises and treaties too easily broken again and again. Listening until there is nothing more to hear, and then listening to the silence. From which comes the still small voice of hope. The word of a Messiah who embraces us without concern for our good works or deeds. Our merit or achievement. Comes a voice that says by grace you have been saved, so listen and serve.
Amen.