Sermon preached at The Church of the Holy Trinity Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia On Sunday March 17th 2013 The

Reverend Alan Neale A Great Satanic Illusion

The title for todays sermon is A Great Satanic Illusion it is the fifth and final sermon in a Lenten series based on Julie Otsukas book The Buddha in the Attic. We have considered the Seduction, the Power, the Isolation of Illusion and, last week, the Escape from Illusion. I am proud to have shared this series with Marissa and Richard - they have preached with eloquence, with passion and with authenticity. In the book, Japanese mail order brides are shipped to America their expectation of compassionate and caring men, their hopes for marriages where they are respected and their talents and skills valued is all an illusion an awful, tragic illusion. Towards the end of the book Ms. Otsuka describes the way in which the Japanese, many American citizens, are again shipped off to camps during the Second World War; their very existence becomes an illusion. Very rarely did they ever hear you are welcome and I believe this speaks to what is a great Satanic illusion of the soul you are not welcome, you have no home. The Epic Church speaks of stuffy people in stuffy churches where they have not heard, You are welcome. Handsome baby Andrew was in church a few weeks ago, he cried as babies do and even in a communion line his mother was told, Cant you shut that baby up. You agree, a rather strident You are not welcome. And in the late 19th century NINA signs appeared Help Wanted, No Irish Need Apply! To be refused admission, barred entry, offered no welcome strikes right at the deepest, the profoundest aspect of the human heart. It creates hurt and trauma, often tears and often physical pain, and sometimes paranoia and anger leading to a violent and unbridled response. This is, I believe, a Great Satanic Illusion the whispering, seductive, persuasive voice that insinuates itself into our minds and hearts. You are not welcome in the plans, the people, the heart of God. First, consider the plans of God that are always good, productive and protected. As some consider their future, a voice will come (sometimes as an interior voice but more often expressed by people and institutions that should know better) a voice will come you are not welcome! But, the prophet Isaiah (chapter 43) declares without hesitation you, I are welcome in the future, the plan, the economy of God I am about to do a new thing there will be ways in the wilderness there will be rivers in the desert. You are not welcome oh yes, I am!

Second, consider the community of God that at its best, at its most authentic offers welcome, radical hospitality to all. The woman, named Mary, in todays Gospel (John 12) approaches Jesus but is scorned, ridiculed, ostracized by the disciples. In utter adoration, pure worship, almost intimate reverence Mary takes costly pure nard to anoint the feet of Jesus and then wipes his feet with her hair womens hair seen in Bible times as speaking to that which is intimate, sensual. Jesus receives, welcomes the gift (maybe embarrassed a little), receives the act of love and then commands the disciples, Leave her alone and, as Matthew records (26:10), Jesus continues, She has done a beautiful thing for me. You are not welcome oh yes I am! And consider the very heart of God that throbs, pulsates, beats for His creation. Paul is the persecutor par excellence of the Christians he does it with zeal, with efficiency and with energy. This arch enemy of the Christian church, treated with understandable suspicion by some of the early Christians; this maniac who harassed the church with obsession he now enjoys a place in the very heart of God. Philippians 3, he writes of knowing Jesus as MY Lord becoming like Jesus and of Christ Jesus making me his own. Personal experience, painful memories and doubtless persistent rebuff by the early Church could easily have combined to convince Paul that he was not welcome in the heart and life God but he was wrong, resoundingly wrong, and so he sings literary songs of Gods love and writes lyrical praises of Gods grace. You are not welcome oh yes I am. Experiences of the women (and men) as Japanese in a foreign land can be summed up, summarized, encapsulated in this wretched reception, You are not welcome you have no future, no community and you surely have no place in the heart and soul of what is genuinely American. Overnight they began to look at us differently page 85 They learned when to go swimming Mondays only page 77. And yet they bravely and resolutely somehow survived and to the statement You are not welcome they resoundingly, almost with one voice, respond, though sometimes with a whisper Oh yes I am; Oh yes we are. The church, out of step with the heart of God, has often told racial minorities you are not welcome, it has often dared to speak the same message to women, to gays, to the oppressed, the invisible and the those who make us feeljust downright uncomfortable. And from somewhere even those who come regularly to the table hear the same message, You are not welcome. Would you believe it? It occurs to me that a hypocrite is the person who refuses to welcome the shadow side, the awful secret, the repressed aspect of her or his soul, psyche the very deepest of their being.

And to such a person, I ask And hows that working for you? Haruko left a tiny laughing brass Buddha up high, in a corner of the attic, where he is still laughing to this day of course he is laughing, he has found his place where he is secure. How much have we laughed recently? You are welcome, I am welcome to share in the future, the community, the heart of God anything other voice is a great satanic illusion. Believe it! Amen.