“Beat(les) and
Beatitudes”
10. Let It Be
Luke 1:26-38
First
Presbyterian
The Reverend
Thomas A. Sweet
August 24,
2008
Text:
“Let it be with me according
to your word.” - Luke
1:38
Return to the Sermons and Articles Page
Return to the Sermon Archives Page
It
gives me pause to discover that in the last four thousand years of recorded
history, only three hundred of them have been without a major war somewhere in
the world. Perhaps that is what
caused one wag to define peace as “those
brief, glorious moments in history when everyone stops to reload their
weapons.”
That seems a bit cynical, does it not? Surely
Jesus had much more in mind than that when he said, “Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
We
have been talking about the Beatitudes of Jesus this summer through the lens of
the beat generation. While often
derided by the establishment of its day for its licentious excesses, at its
core, the beat movement was a spiritual quest.
In my first sermon in this series, I quoted Jack Kerouac, generally cited
as the founder and chief exemplar of the movement, saying that
beat doesn’t mean tired or bushed
or beat up so much
as it means ‘beato,’ the Italian for beatific: to be in a
state of beatitude, trying to love all life, trying to be
utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance,
kindness, and cultivating joy of heart.
The
question, Kerouac said, is how can this be done in “our mad modern world of multiplicities and millions?”
That is what we have been exploring through our engagement with the
Beatitudes or, as I sometimes have called them this summer, the Beat-i-tudes.
You
may have noticed a slight change in the title of the series this morning, moving
from “Beats and Beatitudes” to “Beat(les) and Beatitudes.”
It is a fair emendation for while there are a variety of explanations as
to how the popular sixties band of “John, Paul, George, and Ringo” fame got
its name, the Beatles themselves explained that it evidenced their respect for
the beat culture and the life of peace it pursued.
Most
everyone, of course, has his or her favorite Beatles song, but I have the pulpit
today and so, by our Cindy’s and Cyndi’s good graces, we are going to hear
mine (smile). As the last released
single of the band, I consider it the quintessential Beatles anthem for, in its
inimitable way, it is calls us to embrace a life and a living in which sacred
wisdom is honored and the sacred word commended as the path for us to follow
toward peace and well-being. The
song is, of course, “Let It Be.”
(For those reading this
sermon online, you may hear the song by following this link on
youtube.com:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67J_66hdN-I
)
When
I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be…
And when the broken-hearted people
Living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is
Still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be…
And when the night is cloudy,
There is still a light that shines on me.
Shine until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be,
Let it be, yeah let it be.
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be,
Let it be, yeah let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
-partial
lyrics to “Let It Be” by Lennon/McCartney
“What is it about?” several
people asked me this week when they heard that I was going to use the song in
worship. As with biblical texts, it
is true that this extra-canonical musical scripture, too, can be understood on
several levels. While the song traditionally is attributed to both John Lennon
and Paul McCartney, it actually is McCartney’s composition and, on one level,
it is a song he wrote after his beloved deceased mother, named Mary, came to him
in a dream during a tense and stressful stretch in his life and offered him
counsel and comfort. But the overtly
religious and scriptural references cannot be passed over:
Mother Mary, wisdom, hour of
darkness, broken-hearted people, a light that shines on me, and even let it be all are biblical phrases or images meant to inspire us to
a better, hopeful, more peaceable world.
One
of the most profound responses in all the Bible
is attributed to the prospective mother of Jesus when Mary said, after having
been told by the angel bearing God’s word, as the story goes, that she will
give birth to a baby who will be called Son of God: “Let it be with me according to your word.”
Let it be. Let it happen.
No matter how far-fetched or how fanciful it all sounds, let it be what
God says it will be and trust it “for
with God nothing will be impossible.”
Not
even peace is impossible. No kind of
peace – not peace between nations, not peace between neighbors, not peace
within families, not peace within our own lives – is ever beyond the perimeter
of possibility when and where God’s presence is welcomed and received.
That is why Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of
God.” Peacemaking is the
unavoidable calling of any and all of us who seek in any way in our lives to
follow the Prince of Peace. It is no
easy task, no easy road, but for those who undertake it, Jesus said, they will
experience a familial bonding with God.
So,
what is peace? It is not
a truce. Do you remember during the
Peace
also is not evading or avoiding issues that lead to conflict.
Some see peace being procured by ignoring matters or circumstances that
cause hostilities between competing sides or turmoil within ourselves.
But pretending that significant issues that potentially divide nations,
neighbors, and even family members from each other do not exist provides only
illusory peace that is not real and eventually collapses, often in very violent
ways. When we avoid dealing with
conflicted feelings with others or within ourselves, the false peace that
results soon or late blows up in us and we find ourselves in crisis.
Peace
cannot prevail when truth is sacrificed because, in the end, truth always is
served. It is the way of things in
God’s world. On the surface, both
in our own lives and in our national life, it may appear that we can “get away
with something,” but, as Jesus once said, only truth sets us free.
Even if our lie is covered on the surface, energetically it continually
eats away at the pseudo peace purchased by prevarication and the house of cards
finally falls.
Peace
is the essence of the gospel, of the
good news of God, that, for Christians, we see expressed in the life and
teachings of Jesus. It is the
gift of God that emerges when we trust God’s wisdom, when we “let it be,”
when we say to the Spirit of God, like Mother Mary, “Let
it be with me according to your word.” I
long have contended that the gospel Jesus came bringing has not been tried and
found to be wanting in any way, or deficient, or naïve.
It is that it is very seldom tried and even less often embraced.
We tinker with God’s wisdom. We
twist it. Resist it.
Dismiss it. Anything but
letting it be and allowing it to hold sway in our lives. And,
lest you think I am casting aspersions, let me echo
Here
is something you probably are not going to like on first hearing and perhaps you
will argue with it. I did when I
first read it, but now I am entirely persuaded by something I uncovered recently
in a very fine book entitled StormFront:
The Good News of God. In it,
the authors write that “rather than
advocating the ‘adult’ virtues of maturity, independence, willpower, and
responsibility, Jesus tells the disciples to ‘become like children.’
To be children is to be dependent, to be vulnerable, to need help, and to
be receptive to it. Disciples are
those who follow Jesus and seek the
Imagine
if that was the way nations approached
other nations, neighbors approached other neighbors, and the shadow within us
approached our brighter side…not with brazenness, bravado, or braggadocio, but
with humility, humanity, and a hunger for righteousness which, as we said a few
weeks ago, means right-relatedness. It
reminds me of my favorite William Sloane Coffin saying, that old warrior for
peace who died a few years ago. He
said, “If we are not yet one in love, we
at least are one in our sin and that is no mean bond, for it precludes our being
separated in the judgment.” In
the topsy-turvy world of God’s gospel, peace comes not through the strength of
power and might but via the “weakness” of vulnerability and compassion.
Oh,
may we come to trust God sufficiently so that no matter the cost to us, we can
allow God’s way to become our way too, our way of peace.
“Let it be with us according to
God’s word.” Just
let it be.
When the night is cloudy (as it
often is in our warring world these days
and also in us),
There is still a light that shines on me, (on us).
Shine until tomorrow (comes), let it be.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
will be called children of God.”
Amen.
I
am going to ask Cyndi to sing our song again and invite you to join in whenever
the chorus comes around.
(1)
James W. Brownson and others, StormFront: The Good News of God.
©
Copyright 2008 First Presbyterian Church