2025.03.09 | Treasure

“Treasure”
Matthew 8:1-4; 16-17

Preached by 
Rev. Dr. Marvin Lance Wiser 

Eden United Church of Christ  
Hayward, CA 
09 March 2025

Good morning church, welcome to the 260th Sunday of Lent. Could you imagine? For some of us it feels like we’re stuck in a moment and can’t get out of it. Sorry Pastor Ashley, we could have sang that U2 song today, but inspiration struck late last night. 260 Sundays happens to be 5 years. And today we commemorate 5 years since the pandemic lockdown, and so while we are definitely different than we were 5 years ago, we exclaim that we were and still are broken. While we have spent so much energy on community resilience and community empowerment, at times we find ourselves depleted, broken, and rough around the edges. As Bono says, “We’ve got to get ourselves together.”

Hoy conmemoramos los 5 años del confinamiento por la pandemia y, aunque definitivamente somos diferentes de lo que éramos hace 5 años, exclamamos que estábamos y seguimos estando destrozados. Si bien hemos dedicado tanta energía a la resiliencia y el empoderamiento de la comunidad, a veces nos sentimos agotados, destrozados y con los bordes ásperos. “Tenemos que recomponernos”.

But life is hard. Five years ago we had the same head of state. It’s as if we’re in groundhog day, or like a record skipping, caught in a moment and can't get out of it. A friend of mine is caught in quite a moment. 

This week a trial begins in a $300M lawsuit against Greenpeace over the North Dakota pipeline protests during 2016 and 2017. He’s there with other Greenpeace employees defending against Dallas-based Energy Transfer. Might corporations begin to sue activists and scientists into silence? Sounds broken to me. 

A clergy colleague of mine served as a chaplain at the protests at Standing Rock nearly 8 years ago. Armoured vehicles, water cannons, rubber bullets, attack dogs, sound cannons, concussion grenades, and blizzard conditions met the guardians and allies of indigenous land rights. The eyewitness account that my friend and colleague described to me is something that I expect Gen Alpha to make a film about one day. They were inhabiting a documentary moment, transcending geographic and social boundaries to be in solidarity. Eventually President Obama’s administration ordered a halt to construction of the pipeline; however the succeeding administration reversed the order, and construction was completed in 2017, violating the Fort Laramie Treaty. In 2017, the pipeline leaked 1.4 million gallons of fluid. Even at its inception the enterprise was broken. There’s ways to work within the brokenness though. Indigenous pastor activist and author of Unsettling Truths, Mark Charles, was just here speaking at Bethel Presbyterian Community Church in San Leandro last night. There are people joining hands against Manifest Destiny yet.

That same friend just so happens to be working on a documentary with Jane Fonda. I don’t know if you are a fan of award season, Yuliana is, and so I am as well. Jane Fonda received the Life Achievement Award at the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards two weeks ago. In her acceptance speech she asks if we have ever found ourselves watching a documentary about great social movements, resistance, and asked ourselves if we would have been brave enough to walk the bridge? Would we be able to take the batons, the hoses, and the dogs? One could equally imagine Selma or Standing Rock. Jane asserts that we don’t have to wonder anymore, because, “we are in our documentary moment.”

Unfortunately, so many more are going to hurt. The fear and anxiety is justified. How are we planning to reach out to those in pain, like Jesus did? Jesus crossed social boundaries in every way imaginable: geographical, ethnic, religious, political. Jesus teaches us that the boundaries we thought were helping us might actually be hurting us and hurting others. 

¿Alguna vez nos hemos encontrado viendo un documental sobre grandes movimientos sociales y resistencias y nos hemos preguntado si hubiéramos sido lo suficientemente valientes para cruzar el puente? ¿Seríamos capaces de llevar las porras, las mangueras y los perros? Uno podría imaginarse igualmente Selma o Standing Rock. Tal vez ya no tengamos que preguntárnoslo, porque “estamos en nuestro momento documental”.

Lamentablemente, muchas más personas sufrirán con lo que está pasando en este país. El miedo y la ansiedad están justificados. ¿Cómo planeamos ayudar a quienes sufren, como lo hizo Jesús? Jesús cruzó fronteras sociales de todas las maneras imaginables: geográficas, étnicas, religiosas y políticas. Jesús nos enseña que las fronteras que creíamos que nos ayudaban en realidad podrían estar lastimándonos a nosotros y a otros. Debemos recordar que Dios está en la oscuridad. Recordemos que el feto se forma en la oscuridad, la semilla germina en la oscuridad. Como dice un escritor afroamericano: “después del incendio todavía habrá amor, todavía habrá belleza”.

Sadly, brokenness is not just contained to our country. We see so many ripple effects of brokenness. What is happening to Ukraine and how the current U.S. administration is treating Ukraine is nothing short of broken. Since it is award season, No Other Land’s winning of Best Documentary which tells the story of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank is also worthy of mentioning. It’s currently showing at the Elmwood Rialto Theater in Berkeley. The pain and brokenness is so great at times, that it seems only despair is on the horizon. But we mustn't allow despair to have the final word, as hope rises still. Light shines brightest in the dark. In our Bible study this past week, we read some of Amy-Jill Levine's writings about God habitating the darkness. Recall, the fetus is formed in darkness, the seed germinates in darkness.

African American playwright Pearl Cleage reminds us, “On the other side of the conflagration, there will still be love, there will still be beauty, and there will be an ocean of truth for us to swim in.” What if beauty not only remains, but emerges in spite of the conflagration? It is the intense heat of sand that makes something new: glass. And like the batterings of waves on sea glass, life itself has an erosion effect on us, as we age, fall ill, democracies falter. And there is still love, there is still beauty. What is produced even amid ruins, is treasure. We are treasure, not in spite of our brokenness, but in great part, because of it. We are treasured by God, brokenness and all. We are beautiful and we belong. . . to one another, and to God. 

So how are we helping people know this truth? How are we extending our hands to the socially exiled? Integrating the outcast? Offering messages of hope and healing amid brokenness? Our movement is and has always been one of movement for healing in a fragmented world. How are you practicing being okay amid brokenness? Working toward wholeness? 

The leper pleads, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean,” yet in  John 5 it is Jesus who asks the paralytic, “Do you want to get well?” In a world of broken relationships, it takes more than just one person to heal. There’s a meeting in the middle. As we read in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus’ hand is already outstretched. Will you extend yours? No shame. No judgement. Just grace. 

Our purpose is not suffering, and death is not the end; but both are part of life. Perhaps at no time have we felt more isolated than 5 years ago when “quarantine” and “isolation” were part of our everyday vocabulary. That does not have to be the case any more. We can connect with others, we can break down barriers, and we can even offer an affirmative touch, receive a healing touch, an embrace of inclusion. 

Todavía hay amor, todavía hay belleza. Lo que se produce incluso en medio de las ruinas es un tesoro. Somos un tesoro, no a pesar de nuestra fragilidad, sino en gran parte, gracias a ella. Somos un tesoro para Dios, con todo y fragilidad. Somos hermosos y pertenecemos... los unos a los otros, y a Dios. Nuestro propósito no es sufrir, o excluir a los demás. Entonces, ¿cómo ayudamos a la gente a conocer esta verdad? La mano de Jesús ya está extendida. ¿Extenderás la tuya?

Hace cinco años, este mismo domingo, debido al encierro, detuvimos abruptamente el antiguo ritual de compartir la paz de Cristo. Ahora, como el enfermo, nosotros también decimos sí a recibir el don de la sanación reconciliadora. Practiquemos una inclusión y pertenencia más profunda renovando este ritual. Todos fueron invitados a colocar un sticker verde, amarilla o rojo en nuestra etiqueta de nombre. El verde indica que uno está bien con los apretones de manos y los abrazos, el amarillo preferiría no tocarse y el rojo es para aquellos que prefieren mantener una distancia más segura. También invito a todos nosotros durante este tiempo de pasar la paz a dirigirnos al frente donde la pastora Brenda tendrá un trozo de vidrio marino para cada uno de nosotros. Que les recuerde durante esta temporada de Cuaresma que son hermosos y valiosos incluso cuando están rotos, y Dios hace de nuestro quebrantamiento sanación.

Five years ago to this very Sunday, we abruptly halted the ancient ritual of the Passing of the Peace due to the lockdown. We continued to abstain from it during the worship service even after coming back to in-person worship service 3 years ago in order to continue to promote physical health amid a widespread contagion. The threat now is social wellbeing. 

And so, like the paralytic we too say yes to receiving the gift of reconciliatory healing. Let us practice a deeper inclusion and belonging by renewing the passing of the peace of Christ. All were invited to place a green, yellow, or red sticker on our name tag. Green indicates that one is okay with handshakes or embraces, yellow would rather be touch-free, and red is for those that would rather keep a safer distance. I also invite all of us during this time of passing the peace to make our way to the chancel where Pastor Brenda will have a piece of sea glass for each of us. May it remind you during this Lenten season that you are beautiful and treasured even when broken, and God makes out of our brokenness wholeness. Like the waves, God’s love washes over us continually. 

In 1989, in the last days of the USSR, about 2 million people from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania formed a human chain that united all 3 countries to show the world their desire to escape the Soviet Union and the communism that brought only suffering and poverty. This healing touch, power of connection, passing of peace, stretched about 375 miles. Just imagine the transformative power that can occur when we extend, receive, and sustain the touch of inclusion and belonging.

And now may we extend grace and peace toward each other. May the Peace of Christ be with you.