- On Signal Hill
Friday evening, Ginger, Ethan, Zander and I went out to a restaurant to enjoy some food and watch the Laker game. At the restaurant, everyone’s attention was on the before-game events memorializing Kobe Bryant and the others who died in last week’s helicopter crash. And when there was that 24.2 seconds of silence, everyone in the restaurant - even the staff - was silent and still.
I’m not a huge sports fan, so I might not be getting this quite right, but it seems to me that, over his career, Kobe Bryant grew and matured off the court as well as on. He understood the importance of one’s responsibility to one’s team, and later, he came to understand one’s responsibility to one’s family, as well as one’s responsibility to the community and world at large.
It just so happens that, even before last week’s tragic event, I felt called to preach today’s sermon on that type of responsibility.
There is a place on top of Signal Hill where I have gone to several times to pray and meditate. It’s on the east side of the hill, near the pull-up bars, and not far from this staircase that I like to run up and down.
From that spot, I can see the airport and the pyramid at Long Beach State. I can see Supreme Scream at Knott’s off in the distance, and beyond that, the snow-covered peaks of Mt. Baldy and Mt. San Gorgonio.
The paths, the stairs, and the pull up bars on Signal Hill have become for me places that help me keep myself physically strong.
And that spot where I like to sit has become a place that helps me keep myself mentally awake. It's a place where I sometimes sit… and think… and pray.
2. Waiting for a Word
It may surprise you to hear me say what I'm about to say next…
...but when it comes to prayer... I’m still learning.
One thing I’ve been doing, since the start of the year - that I have found helpful to my prayer life - is this… After running up and down the stairs, and along the paths; and after doing as many pull ups as I can; I like to sit on that cement pad.
Just sit.
I just sit … and I listen.
Some people, when they sit and pray or meditate, they try to block everything out… That doesn’t work for me.
Instead of blocking everything out, I try to bring everything in. I do this by listening to all the sounds, noticing every sound I hear, and I try to identify each one… Birds, chirping… people walking by… kids playing basketball or soccer in the park… freeway traffic… airplanes taking off and landing… factories humming… oil well pumpjacks whispering and whirring…
And then, I listen for a word from God. Because God is in all those sounds.
I’ve only done this a few times at this location. The first time I did it, I didn’t know if a word would come.
But a word did come. Literally.
And that word was LOVE.
Sitting there, looking out over the world, and hearing all those sounds, I realized that, in a world filled with so much fake news and false accusations, it’s more important than ever to speak the truth…I’ve been trying to speak the truth in every sermon I’ve ever given. However, speaking the truth isn't effective unless it’s spoken in love. If it’s not spoken in love, then we should just keep quiet. Truth that isn’t spoken in love isn’t going to help anyone or anything.
It was a good word: love.
A week or two later, I was back. And again, I sat, and I listened.
And the word that came to me this time was PRAYER. Which makes sense, because here I was, trying to be better at exactly that - trying to be better at praying.
Strangely enough, a few days later, each of us here at church received a star, and each star had a different word written on it, and the word written on my star was PRAYER. So it was clear to me that I needed to continue with these I times of quiet meditation.
I had another opportunity to sit in that spot not too long ago, and again I waited for a word to come. I heard the sounds of traffic and factories and people walking by, and my mind drifted as I wondered just how all these people relate to one another in community, how they do (or do not) work together to create a better community… and the word that came to me then was RESPONSIBILITY.
Specifically, the responsibility we have to each other. To our neighbors.
3. Brother’s Keeper
It bothers me that so many people in this country feel so little responsibility toward others. They take care of their own, and that’s it. They don’t want their taxes going to fund programs that benefit other people. They don’t feel obligated to care for or look out for others. They are only concerned about their rights, and say things like, “I can do whatever I want… it’s my right…” without considering how their actions might be affecting those around them.
The rights we have certainly are a blessing… One of the greatest gifts and blessings we have in this country is our rights and our freedom. Freedom is not something we should ever take for granted.
But we also do have an obligation to support one another.
This is what the apostle Paul wrote about in the first letter to the Corinthians, and in other letters of his. “I am free,” Paul wrote. “Christ has set me free. But does this mean I can do whatever I want? I have a responsibility to serve Christ.”
And serving Christ means serving one’s neighbor.
Flipping all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, there’s a story of the first brothers: Cain and Abel. And at one point, God asks Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And Cain replies, “How should I know? Am I my brother’s keeper?”
And one could argue that nearly every story that follows - practically the entire Bible - is meant to show that, yes, you are your brother’s keeper. You are your sister’s keeper.
This is why I remember well something Barack Obama once said, several years before he was elected president. He said:
“We are connected as one people. If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It’s that fundamental belief – I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper – that makes this country work.”
It’s the responsibility each of us have, to love our neighbor, to care for one another, to care for our community and our world…
4. A Good Turn Daily
I’m thankful to scouting for the way it teaches this kind of responsibility.
One of my earliest scouting memories, back when I was just a squirrel, was riding with my troop up Angeles Crest Highway, on our way to what I think may have been my very first boy scout outing. Suddenly, in front of us, scattered across the road, there were some rocks… rocks the size of oranges and grapefruit, and maybe one or two as big as a cantaloupe.
Our leaders found a safe place to pull over, and we all got out of the vehicle and moved those rocks off the road. And I thought to myself, “Oh, I guess this is what it means to do a good turn daily…”
It wasn’t our job to do it. One could argue that it wasn’t our responsibility. But our leaders knew that another driver might not see those rocks in time, and they could cause a flat tire, or perhaps even something worse. Our leaders taught me and my fellow scouts that day that the reason we do a good turn daily is that we do a responsibility, to look out for others, even if those others are people we will never meet.
We are our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper.
And a lot of the good turns we do are for people we will never meet… or for people who are very different from us.
When Jesus told the story about the Good Samaritan, and how it was the Samaritan who acted as a good neighbor, he demonstrated how no person, no matter how different, no matter how hated, is to be excluded from our kindness and compassion. He showed us that in the kingdom of God, there are no boundaries. There are no walls that divide.
We have a responsibility to care for others, and that responsibility knows no limits.
5. A Responsibility to Care
It’s why we do justice, and show love with kindness, and walk humbly.
It’s why Christians and other people of faith have been leaving water in the desert southwest for immigrants coming over from Mexico. Some of those who have placed water in the desert have been arrested and taken to court for doing this, but juries have refused to convict them.
Faith teaches us that we have a responsibility to provide water to those who are thirsty, no matter who they are. We have a responsibility to feed those who are hungry. We have a responsibility to care for others.
It doesn’t matter if they are a Samaritan, or an immigrant in the desert. It doesn’t matter if you know that person or not. It doesn’t matter if you like them or not. It doesn’t matter if they are from a different country or not, if they are of a different race, if they are of a different sexual orientation or gender identity…
We have a responsibility to one another.
We have a responsibility to care. To show kindness. To show love… and to go out of our way to exercise this responsibility… God wants us to think about how our actions affect others, and to alter our actions if necessary, so that we can be better neighbors to one another… even if doing so entails a sacrifice on our part.
We can’t keep living as if we’re the only ones that matter. That’s why we have such terrible economic inequality today; that’s why we have a climate crisis that’s bordering on catastrophe; that’s why wars start. Because too many are only concerned about their needs, while neglecting the needs of their neighbor.
The word REPENT that gets used a lot in church simply means to change one’s heart and one’s life. We need to repent. We need to change. We need to go out of our way, and take responsibility for the welfare of all our neighbors, and not just for ourselves.
This is a core Christian teaching
This is a teaching shared by all major religions.
If you don’t take some responsibility for improving the lives of those around you, then you aren't being a good Christian, you aren’t being a good Muslim, you aren’t being a good Buddhist, you aren’t being a good Jew.
We are all called to care for one another. To alleviate suffering. To bring wholeness to a broken world.
And it can all start by doing a good turn daily.
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