Brave - September 12, 2021
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Deborah Laforet
Brave
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by the Spirit and be words of wisdom for this today. Amen.
At the beginning of August, The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued, once again issued, a dire report warning that without a radical reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions, we are on a course for global warming that will have grave consequences.
At the beginning of this month, more than 200 medical journals warned in an unprecedented joint statement that rapidly warming climate is the "greatest threat" to global public health, and urges world leaders to cut heat-trapping emissions to avoid "catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.” The editorial says the world can't wait for the COVID-19 pandemic to pass before addressing climate change. "No temperature rise is 'safe'," the editorial says. "In the past 20 years, heat-related mortality among people over 65 years of age has increased by more than 50%."
What kind of courage did it take to put out these reports? These reports are backed by many people and are taken seriously by many others but many others are still pushing back, refuting what is in these reports, and sometimes reacting with violence. Publishing these reports and journals may have put people at risk. But they have the backing of their publisher, the UN, and the many other people who support these reports.
What happens when one person stands up, when one person shouts that more needs to be done, that we need to be reducing emissions, eliminating single use plastic, reducing our plastic use, finding alternative forms of energy, travelling less, consuming less. What happens when someone tells a friend that they need to rethink the vehicle they are purchasing, maybe think about carpooling, or decide to become vegetarian in a family of cattle farmers, or march against a pipeline knowing their community is supported by oil profits?
Sometimes speaking out can be scary. Sometimes there is personal risk in speaking out, from losing a friend, to being ostracized from family and community, to physical threats.
All summer, we have been preaching on songs that matter, songs suggested by our church community. Although last week was the end of that series, there was one last requested song. Ron Shermet suggested, “Brave” by Sara Bareilles, a singer Ron enjoys. He thought the song would be great for a sermon. And it is. The message is about breaking your silence. Sometimes we don’t speak because of past hurts, sometimes we don't speak because we’re afraid of what might happen, but holding in our words is like being in a cage or letting the shadows win. Bareilles asks, I wonder what would happen if you say what you wanna say. She wants to see you be brave.
Whenever I think of people who bravely speak out in the bible, my first thought is of the prophets, those people in our bible who spoke truth to power, who called out people’s sin, who opposed kings and queens and emperors. Most of these biblical prophets are depicted as old men with long, white, flowing beards, but prophets can be of any age and any gender, rich or poor, quiet or loud, eloquent or blunt.
When I think of a prophet who resisted their call, who did not want to speak out, I think of Jeremiah, who again, is usually depicted as older and bearded, but Jeremiah’s stated reason for resisting God’s call is that he is too young. I don't know what too young is for Jeremiah, but I wonder whether he was a young man of 14 or 18 or maybe 24.
Jeremiah says he is too young and that he does not know how to speak. I totally get that. When I became a minister, I told people that it wasn’t to become a preacher. I wanted to help people, teach people, learn about justice, connect with God and follow Jesus, but public speaking was beyond my capabilities and more than I wanted. And here I am.
We all have it in us. We all doubt ourselves. We all experience the fear that comes with exposing our true selves, whether that involves speaking about ourselves, exposing a secret, or speaking out about something for which we feel a passion and a deep sense of connection, but we all have it in us.
We might speak out against bullies, we might share something about ourselves that we know will be met with disapproval or hostility, we might have to speak out against a lie, or speak out against some kind of injustice. We all have this part of ourselves that needs to be spoken, or written, or sung, or expressed with our body in some way. But it’s not easy.
Sara Bareilles writes:
And since your history of silence
Won't do you any good
Did you think it would?
Let your words be anything but empty
Why don't you tell them the truth?
Now, one of my passions is my care for the earth, my love for the wonders of this earth. I carry a lot of grief and disappointment in regard to our climate emergency and what is happening to life on this earth, through fires, oil spills, floods and droughts, extinctions, urbanization and the loss of green spaces, the neglect and disrespect of indigenous peoples…I could keep going. Even though I feel so strongly, it’s still hard to speak up. The actions we need to take are inconvenient, difficult, expensive, uncomfortable, and sometimes people get angry, and I don't like making people angry or making them feel badly. These are times when I have to feel brave, when I’m feeling like I don't have a choice but to speak up for a world that can’t speak for itself.
If you had the courage, what would you say? Would you confess? Would you name your truth? Would you shout against an injustice, speak up for someone who can’t speak for themselves? What would it take for you to brave?
In the words of Sara Bareilles, “Say what you wanna say, and the let the words fall out. Honestly I want to see you be brave.” May it be so. Amen.