Awesome Intimacy

Exodus 24: 12-18 Marianne Niesen March 6, 2011

The colors and the beads and the music today should all make it very clear that this is a different kind of Sunday. Yes, we are taking time to pray and share Communion - both sacred and important acts of faith. And we are taking time to do something else. We are celebrating Mardi Gras. We have been doing a celebration like this for at least 7 or 8 years. And for the past 5 years, we have even had beads for everyone, thanks to Tom and Billie Cummins who provide them for us. They were members here for several years before deciding to move back to Colorado. But, before they moved, Billie came to see me to assure me that she wanted to continue to provide the beads for our yearly celebration. She even got the battery replaced on my special New Orleans mask beads so I’d be properly decked out!

When most of us think of Mardi Gras we think of New Orleans and the serious celebrating we’ve either experienced or heard about that happens there this time of year. I’ve never been to a Mardi Gras myself, but I’ve heard tell of parades and beads and innocent frivolity - and excessive drinking and partying and things getting out of hand. And while the excesses of Mardi Gras celebrations are real, the roots of this festival - excesses and all - are actually religious. It dates back to the Middle Ages in Europe when Christian revelers engaged in some serious partying before the very austere season of Lent. Some of it was practical. During Lent, the eating of meat and just about anything good, was prohibited. It was a time when the church held a lot of power in people’s lives. The fasting of Lent was part of what was expected of decent folks. So, before the conveniences of modern refrigeration, it was necessary to eat up the meat and other forbidden foods like eggs and sweets of any kind. What better way to do that but by a grand party? I know I am painting with a very broad brush here. Customs were different, depending on country and culture but you get the idea.

There are a variety of stories about how Mardi Gras came to this country. It may have originated from early French settlers in Louisiana. Another story is that it was brought here in 1827 when a group of students who had recently returned from school in Paris donned strange costumes and danced their way through the streets of New Orleans in a way that was reminiscent of what they had witnessed in Paris. However it happened, it happened. From the early part of the 19th century on, Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans became more and more elaborate with parades and floats and the throwing of trinkets and beads to cheering crowds and an annual Mardi Gras ball, complete with royalty. In 1872, the Mardi Gras king who was none other than Grand Duke of Russia, Alexis Romanoff Alexandrovitch chose what would become the official Mardi Gras colors . . . purple, green and gold. Twenty years later, those colors were given their meaning . . . purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power. Try as I might, however, I couldn’t discover the point of the colors . . . exactly whose power are we symbolizing? Whose faith? Justice for whom? Or, maybe it is all purposely ambiguous and, in true Mardi Gras fashion, we can understand it all as we wish . . .

Still, the question remains . . . why do we as a church take it upon ourselves to take a whole Sunday worship service to celebrate Mardi Gras? It’s great. It’s fun. But why?

Maybe the jazz music itself that has become such a part of this day gives us our best clue. Just as there is a distinctive rhythm to Dixieland jazz, so there is a rhythm to a healthy life of faith - a rhythm that can sometimes gets overlooked. We are on the cusp of the central season of the Christian year - the Lent/Easter season. Easter was the first and primary celebration for early Christians. They celebrated Easter long before there was ‘Christmas.’ Everything centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus. The observance of Lent came early too, as a time of focused preparation for the ‘high holy days’ of Easter. The 40 days of Lenten preparation became rather austere through the years but they were followed by a glorious Easter day, which was, in turn, followed by 50 Easter celebration days. (Notice that there was an even longer time of celebrating than was spent in preparing through Lenten fasts and prayers.)

There is, I believe, wisdom in such a rhythm. Living a life of faith is serious business. That’s true. We have important work to do in the world. And, we have personal struggles to which we must attend. But the seriousness and depth of our faith need to be balanced with the heights of God’s awesome presence. We need ‘mardi gras’ moments every bit as much as we need Lenten reflection. Consider the text from Exodus. Moses was summoned by God to go up on the mountain for a conference. This came, of course, after the confrontation with Pharaoh and a harrowing escape from Egypt and wandering in the desert and dealing with the ongoing complaints of the escapees. The particulars of what happened on the mountain are shrouded in mystery. First, a cloud covered the mountain for six days. Then a voice was heard…you can come in now, Moses, God is ready for you! And Moses dared enter that space and stayed there for 40 days and 40 nights – which essentially meant, a long time. Something happened in that cloud, on that mountain – something powerful and inspiring and awesome. Moses was up-close-and-personal with God. He knew himself to be trusted with God’s hopes and dreams and vision for the people who waited below. And, you’ve got to think – the way it is set up - that this had to be pretty cool for old Moses. As I thought about it, I came up with a theory…you see, I don’t think it really took God all that long to give Moses the instructions, the ‘tablets of stone’ and all. I think what really took up the time was convincing Moses to go back down the mountain! Do I have to God, really? Those people down there are stubborn and complainers and irritating. And…look what they’re doing now…a golden calf … c’mon, God, let’s just smite them and be done with it. After all, who wants to leave the ‘true glory’ of the divine for the ‘true grit’ of human life?

And God, with eternal patience yet thundering persuasion responded…you cannot live on the mountain, Moses, you’ve got to go down. The mountain is for inspiration and you need that. The mountain is for jubilation and you need that. The mountain is for celebration and you need that. But – down there? That’s where the work is…that’s where I need your perspiration and dedication and determination. Remember the mountain but get to work in the valley! Such is the rhythm of a faithful life.

This past week, I had a phone call from a woman in Billings. She told me that occasionally she and her husband visit our church in Helena and they come every year to our lecture series. And, she said, they were here several years ago when that Westboro Baptist church group came and picketed outside 6 Helena churches, ours being one of them. As you know, that church has been in the news again when the Supreme Court last week upheld their free speech rights. Hateful and obscene as their rhetoric is, it is protected. Apparently that got this woman thinking and she and her husband were going through their pictures from their time here and were trying to remember exactly when that happened. So she called…could we remember? Well, it ended up sending Debbie and Lois and Carol and me on a hunt for the date. We looked through old bulletins and files – and tried to recall who was here and what was happening – and, we found it. They were here on the first Sunday of Lent, Feb. 13, 2005. And it was a week earlier, on February 6th – a Mardi Gras Sunday, with this very same jazz band playing in the old building across the street – that I said this:

“…this year, perhaps more than any other, we are going to get a taste of what it is to move from …the mountain to the valley. Today we have Dixieland jazz – incredible music – and great fun in the Fellowship Hall . . . Have fun. Enjoy it all. Because next Sunday, we will be confronted with life in the valley as members of the Westboro Baptist Church come to picket here – and at five other churches – protesting our faith that God’s love and grace are available to all.” [1]

The following week, the picketers were met by hundreds of people, confronting a violent rhetoric and hate-filled message with a non-violent but courageous response, affirming our commitment to God’s inclusive and redemptive love. It took work to prepare for them but pastors, police and people worked together and, I suspect – thankfully - that we who witnessed to our faith in Helena became one of Westboro’s failures.

From the high energy of Mardi Gras to the hard work of confronting fear and hate with love. Such is often the rhythm of faith. And even Moses didn’t like it much!

So, I am encouraging us, as part of this rhythm, to claim Mardi Gras and make it our own. And let’s claim those Mardi Gras colors . . . they say purple is the color of justice . . .let it remind us today of our Christian commitment to work for justice - economic and social justice for all. There is work to be done - yes - but we can also celebrate today that we are not alone in this work. They say green is the color of faith . . . let it remind us today of God’s love for us and God’s faith in us. Let the color inspire a joy that is life-affirming and energizing. Let it be “greening” for us. They say gold is the color of power. Let us claim it as a symbol of our power to change the world, to be instruments of peace. Yes, green, gold and purple . . . today those can be our colors! We claim them on the mountain and take them with us to the work we have to do in the valleys of life – through Lent and beyond.

I also encourage us to re-claim the season of Lent this year. Consider doing something different during Lent, something that helps you go deeper in your relationship with God. You might commit to a time of prayer and Bible reading and journaling each day. You might try fasting one day a week - or an old tradition of ‘giving up’ something. Commit to the evening services that we’ll have on Wednesday each week - just a quiet half hour of prayer right here. Or be part of the Palm Sunday drama – that will take some commitment on the part of all who participate. I really do encourage you to do something to grow your faith by making the time of Lent different. The power of our celebration of Easter will be directly related to how well we ‘do’ Lent. Just try it.

We live in such a health conscious world and most of us try to eat right and exercise and all that. But, tending to our spiritual health is every bit as important as tending to our physical health. It’s about balance and rhythm. It is about awesome intimacy – a God whose power and greatness are beyond anything we can imagine. A God who meets us where we are and partners with us to do the work that needs doing.

So, enjoy our celebration today – and then, join me on Ash Wednesday, right here at 6:30 p.m. as we come down the mountain and enter the season of service, growth and challenge we know as Lent.

[1] Rev. Marianne Niesen, This Too Shall Pass, Feb. 6, 2005.