WEBVTT 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:41.840 Blessed is the Lord who forgives all our sin. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.639 Please join me in saying the litany of penitence. 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:55.680 You ask for my hands that you might use them for your purpose. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:00.400 I gave them for a moment that withdrew them, for the work was hard. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:14.719 You asked for my mouth to speak out against injustice, and I gave you a whisper that I might not be accused. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:43.680 As we acknowledge our successes and our failures in living a preferential option for the poor, what we have done and what we have been unable to do, we turn to God who is unceasing hope and prayer. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:49.759 Lord, comfort your people and clothe us with your strength. 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:53.840 God, power and touch. 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:00.879 Calm our anxieties, soothe our anguish, and light the darkness that surrounds us. 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:09.680 Comfort your people, God, our surround us with your love and anoint us with your peace. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:19.439 Hear our voices and our hearts as we discern our way together this week. 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:27.439 This is what the Lord has used. 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:29.839 Almighty act. 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:37.279 Almighty God. 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:04.000 Let us pray. 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:16.000 Almighty God, who didst call thy servant Oscar Romero, to be a voice for the voiceless poor, and to give his life as a seat of freedom and a sign of hope. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:29.439 Grant that inspired by his sacrifice and the example of the martyrs of El Salvador, we may without fear or favor witness to thy word who abideth, thy word who is life. 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:35.519 Even Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee in the Holy Spirit be praise and glory now and forever. 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:36.079 Amen. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:45.360 As you're being seated, our children are invited to come forward for the children's sermon if there's so inclined. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:01.279 Alright, so there's a mismatch today. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:02.639 There's a color mismatch. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:03.920 Does anybody see it? 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.600 Oh, not my shirt. 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:11.439 Oh, that was on purpose. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:13.680 That was a good guess, though. 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:18.079 Look, look up there, look up there at the cross, and what color is that on the cross? 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:21.600 It's a really dark purple. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:23.120 Somebody even thought it was black. 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:25.920 But then look what Father Sean's wearing. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.680 Now, does anybody know why we might be wearing red? 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.560 Today we're talking about a saint. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:35.839 A saint. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.160 So what is a saint, you know? 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:41.519 What kind of people are saints? 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:54.720 It's a tough one to answer, isn't it? 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:56.639 Perfect people, right? 00:06:57.360 --> 00:06:59.439 Ones that never make mistakes. 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:03.360 People who have gold halos around their head while they're alive. 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:05.680 Because there's like none of those, right? 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:08.800 Saints are people who point people to God. 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:11.360 They point people to God. 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:13.199 So what kind of people are saints? 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:14.720 It turns out everybody is. 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:19.199 And anytime we celebrate a saint, we wear red. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:21.120 We wear red. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:23.040 Any guesses why? 00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:29.360 It's not the blood of Christ. 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:30.639 That's a good guess, though. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:40.560 Usually we say we're showing it because the blood of the saint, and blood in the Bible is just a code word for life. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:43.839 Your life is in your blood. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.040 This is what the Bible says in Leviticus. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:08:05.279 So anytime we wear red, we're trying to say we're going to celebrate the life of a saint who pointed us to God, and we want to, with our life and our blood, and with our breath, and the way we think and the way we pray and the acts we do, we want to point people to God as well. 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:13.120 It turns out everything we do points people to some version of God. 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:19.199 Sometimes we don't point people to a very loving, just, or caring God. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.480 Sometimes we point people to a God who has life worth having. 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:29.759 And today we're going to celebrate parts of the life of a guy named Oscar Romero. 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:38.159 Oscar Romero, who showed a lot of life that the whole church was missing. 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:42.480 So that's why we get red and purple today. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:51.519 Now, would it surprise you if I said that God loves your life? 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:54.480 God loves your life. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:56.080 Is that a surprise? 00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:58.480 God is delighted that you were born. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:02.639 God is so pleased that you were here. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:05.840 And what does God want for you from your life? 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:06.960 Do you know the answer? 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:08.559 What does God want from your life? 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:16.159 God wants something for you very much. 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:18.240 God wants you to enjoy the life you have to give. 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.879 And God knows that we'll enjoy our life the most. 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:27.840 God knows this. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:30.879 So today we're doing St. 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:32.080 Oscar Romero. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:37.519 But there'll be a St. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:39.279 Jack Triple Day. 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:40.799 And there'll be a St. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:42.720 Eleanor Steele Day. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:43.840 And there'll be a St. 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:45.679 Holt Griffin Day. 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:51.519 Where the people we know will celebrate the ways we appointed each other to God. 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:52.960 And that's what we're invited to do. 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:57.360 And length is a time where we get to say, hey, I am pointing people to God. 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:02.320 Which God do I want to point people to with my very life? 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:04.000 Thanks for that. 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:46.639 You have forsaken your people and the house of Jacob, for they are full of divers from the east, and of suicide is like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with horror. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.720 Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:57.679 Their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:15.919 My times are in your hand. 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.879 Let your face shine upon your sermon. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:33.039 Do not let me be put to shame over my call on you. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:41.440 Let the lying lips be still. 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:08.399 You hold them under your shelter from protection. 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:15.440 Blessed be the Lord, for you have wondrously shown your steadfast love to me. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:24.559 I have said in my alarm I am driven from your sight. 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:28.240 But you heard my supplication cry. 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:35.279 Love the Lord, all your saints, and the Lord preserves the face of you. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:40.080 But above the heroes called you. 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:59.840 Be strong in my heart and creation of all the people who are not a very good idea. 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:42.159 I said to him, Sir, you are the one who knows. 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:47.360 And he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great ordeal. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:51.679 They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb. 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:58.320 And for this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:01.679 And the one who is seated on the throne will show up. 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:09.759 And they will hunger no more and thirst no more, and the sun will not strike them for any scorching east. 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:17.519 For the lamb of the sinner of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life. 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:21.440 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:23.840 The word of the Lord. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:54.000 Jesus answered the disciples, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:17:01.600 Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:04.400 But if it dies, it bears much fruit. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:11.279 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:16.400 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:19.359 Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:23.680 And now my soul is troubled, and what should I say? 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.400 Father, save me from this hour? 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:27.119 No. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:31.599 It is for this reason that I've come to this hour. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.680 Father, glorify your name. 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:35.359 Then a voice came from heaven. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:38.400 I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:42.000 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:44.720 Others said, An angel has spoken to him. 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:49.200 Jesus answered, This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:51.839 Now is the judgment of this world. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:54.720 Now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 00:17:54.880 --> 00:18:00.240 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:03.359 The gospel of the Lord. 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:35.839 Please be seen. 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:50.880 It didn't seem right to talk about Patrick, of whom we know very little, and skip Oscar Romero, of whom we know much. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:58.559 Before I do, I do want to highlight something else about this red color. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:06.559 Anybody who's done laundry is very aware that when you wash clothes in blood, you don't clean them. 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:18.559 So when we hear this story about the saints washing their robes and the blood of the Lamb, you may have this thought that, oh, this is about a sacrifice of cleansing. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:28.160 Instead of the early church's understanding that it was the life of Jesus, not his death, that makes us clean. 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:41.119 The fact that he was embodied, took on the blood, taught and ministered, those are the ways that we cleanse our own lives. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:47.920 Not by dying, but by living as God intended us to live. 00:19:50.240 --> 00:20:00.640 And so when you hear the story of Oscar Romero, I hope that you will hear that he was washed in the blood of the Lamb three years before he was died. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.119 Before he was, sorry, murdered. 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:05.440 So what do we know about Oscar Romero? 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.599 Is anybody familiar with Oscar Romero in the red? 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:11.440 I would recommend to you, it's a B-grade film. 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:13.039 You can rent it on Amazon. 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:22.160 It's called Romero, and it has a special tie to me because having seen the film is what made my partner decide to attend seminary. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:26.559 Having grown up evangelical, this movie spoke to her. 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:31.599 Oscar Romero was murdered in 1980. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:38.319 He was the archbishop at that time of El Salvador, and he was murdered while celebrating the Mass. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:54.720 That is, he was wearing his vestments, and at the moment he raised the chalice, he was shot through the heart by a fellow Catholic, by a fellow El Salvadorian, who thought that they were also doing God's will. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:01.920 Romero was born in 1917 in a lovely part of the country called San Miguel. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:13.359 He was not necessarily rich, but it turns out that El Salvador was mostly owned by 14 families, and most of those 14 families had country estates in San Miguel because it was quite lovely. 00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:23.759 So Romero grew up away from the capital of San Salvador, and early on he decided to be a priest and he was awarded a scholarship to study in Rome. 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:25.599 It turns out he was rather bright. 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:29.359 He had quite a bit of acumen for the priestly work and the priestly study. 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:38.160 He started a PhD in Rome, but the need in El Salvador was so great for local priests that he was sent back. 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:41.839 And it turns out he was a pretty bookish priest. 00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:44.799 He did the pastoral office. 00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:50.880 He actually was very convinced as a young man that the church had no role in politics. 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:59.759 This is pre Vatican II, in which the understanding of church was that we were going to be this godly city outside of the world. 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:08.160 And that while we might suffer in this life, what we had to look forward to was heaven when we died. 00:22:08.319 --> 00:22:13.359 So if life was unfair, don't worry, there'll be heaven when you die. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:16.480 Boy, I heard that at church, and I went capital. 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:31.920 That turned around in Vatican II, and uh in 1968, it turned around, particularly when there was a conference of Latin bishops in Medellin, Colombia, which is like famous because of Pablo Escobar, right? 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:41.519 Uh, and anyway, they met, and this is where uh liberation theology was born by a priest named uh Gustavo Gutierrez. 00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:50.559 Liberation theology uses this phrase from our opening litany, the preferential option for the poor. 00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:54.240 Now, we don't like hearing this as Americans. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:23:00.880 Just the proof and the pudding, right, is when somebody says black lives matter, we want to say all lives matter. 00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:07.039 Because we don't like the idea that God prefers some people over others. 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:11.680 And strictly speaking, right, that's not what preferential option for the poor means. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:21.759 Preferential option for the poor means when somebody can't take care of themselves at that moment within a family, you give them the attention. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:23.599 I had two kids. 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:26.079 One was body trained, the other wasn't. 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:32.799 There were moments when we needed to do the preferential option for the baby. 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:34.000 You understand, right? 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:37.200 This is what the preferential option for the poor sort of said. 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:45.599 Not that God favors poor people, but when people are living in abject poverty, God has to take care of the ones who are sick. 00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:54.240 This is what Gustavo Gutierrez came up with in 1968, and Oscar Romero wouldn't touch it. 00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:14.880 In fact, in 1972, one of the schools in El Salvador, a Jesuit school, did a political protest against the military-controlled government, and Romero wrote a scathing critique that the church had no place in politics. 00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:18.240 He later apologized and repented, by the way. 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:31.920 Romero was such a quiet, bookish priest that with his boss, the archbishop, resigned after 38 years in ministry. 00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:39.039 Uh, the 14 families that owned El Salvador picked Romero to be the new archbishop. 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:43.359 Because they thought he would rock the boat. 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:47.759 And he probably didn't intend to. 00:24:49.119 --> 00:25:07.920 See, at that time, the way that you had access to the archbishop was to lavish donations to the church, which meant that the church would do private baptisms for your family, so they wouldn't have to be around, well, but the mestizos and the indigenous people of El Salvador. 00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:08.400 Right? 00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:12.960 These were people of Spanish descent who were of the elite class. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:26.400 All of this changed because Archbishop Romero, in his own words, met Jesus 17 days after becoming the Archbishop. 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:40.720 His mentor and friend, uh, Father Ronaldo Grande, was murdered by the El Salvadorian military along with a 15-year-old kid and an old man. 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:49.039 They were on their way to perform some more local baptisms when their car was run off the road and littled with bullets. 00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:56.559 And what Archbishop Romero decided to do in that moment drew a lot of opposition. 00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:02.240 This was probably his defining moment, the course that set him down the road that he later walked. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:05.279 He canceled all masses in the country. 00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:07.039 There would be only one. 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:10.000 And it would be at the cathedral that Sunday. 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:11.599 His fellow bishops opposed him. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:13.440 They said, You're denying people the sacraments. 00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:18.400 He said, No, we're all coming together to look at this horror. 00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:20.880 And I'm preaching. 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:32.240 His friend, Father Grande, had worked very hard to raise the conditions for the working poor. 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:42.079 People who did not own their own land, could not pay for their own basic supplies, so they took loans from their landlords, kind of like owing your soul to the company store. 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:07.039 So Romero made this conversion and it unfolded for the next three years until he himself was murdered. 00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:12.400 Romero presided over the funeral of at least six priests. 00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:20.400 And by 1978, there was a slogan in El Salvador, be a patriot, kill a priest. 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:31.359 Because the church was getting involved with the working poor and therefore muddling into politics. 00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:45.440 Archbishop Romero sent a strong message when the new president, who could not be bothered to meet with Bishop Romero to talk about his concerns with priests being murdered. 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:54.400 When he was inaugurated, Archbishop Romero did not go to the inauguration, which broke 200 years of precedent. 00:27:54.640 --> 00:28:00.480 His fellow bishops said, How could you do something as political as abstain from going? 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:04.559 He said, How could I do something as political as to go? 00:28:09.119 --> 00:28:14.720 Over the next three years, Archbishop Romero did some remarkable things. 00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:17.279 He lived in a hospital instead of a palace. 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:24.720 So he chose to live with the sickest people in his own community, not in the bishop's palace. 00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:42.079 He created the foundation of people who tracked human rights violations, cataloged them, recorded them, and after his death and the civil war in El Salvador ended in 1992, those documents were the ones that led to the conviction of war crimes. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:44.640 He did that, not the government. 00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:48.960 The government censored media. 00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:55.279 And in El Salvador, uh, the primary modicum of communication was radio. 00:28:55.440 --> 00:29:05.440 So what Bishop Romero did in his sermons, it used to be 15 minutes, they made it to about an hour and a half every week and were broadcast throughout the country. 00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:09.839 People were listening to them so much so, it goes to local lore. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:15.279 But you could walk down the street, and about the time you stopped hearing this radio, you'd hear another one. 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:20.880 And in that hour and a half, Bishop Romero said what happened that week. 00:29:31.839 --> 00:29:47.920 See, it turns out the El Salvadorian government would put guns in the hands of the dead priest to make it look like they'd actively resisted, and Bishop Romero would preach about the electrical burns on their genitals and the cigarette works on their necks. 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:52.799 These were people who were being tortured. 00:29:54.240 --> 00:30:04.720 Their bodies were just put in landfills and discovered by indigenous people who believed on the landfills to survive. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:26.160 The day before he was murdered, Archbishop Romero put out in a homily sort of his boldest order, which is that when the government gives you an order that is contrary to God, not only do you not have to obey it, you should actively disobey it. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:33.519 And so he called upon the soldiers of the El Salvadorian military to stop killing their brothers. 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.559 He didn't just appeal to them, he ordered them in the name of God not to do this. 00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:43.920 And so the next day, Bishop Romero was murdered at the Mass. 00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:58.400 His funeral, seven days later, had at least a hundred thousand people in attendance and was bombed, and 40 people were murdered. 00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:06.640 He's been recognized, it turns out, outside of Westminster Abbey, there's a statue of Oscar Romero. 00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:19.279 Because of his embodiment, that God actually cares about people that are invisible to us. 00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:44.720 What Romero said actually is that God is embodied in the poor, and that when we consider the wounds of Jesus Christ, the poor people of El Salvador were an active, hemorrhaging wound in the body of Christ that deserved our attention and our love, and not just our thoughts and prayers, but our solidarity and our action. 00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:47.680 And he was murdered for that. 00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:51.920 Now, we call him, he was beatified in 2015. 00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:56.000 We call Archbishop Romero not only a saint, we call him a martyr. 00:31:57.119 --> 00:31:59.200 Anybody know what martyr means? 00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:11.599 So, somebody who died for Jesus. 00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:21.119 Actually, if you're a martyr in the Catholic Church, that is one of the criterion, you had to know you were going to possibly lose your life to be declared a martyr. 00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:26.000 But as Jim said, I don't know if you've heard this, the Greek word martyr means to bear witness. 00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:30.240 What did Asta Romero bear witness to? 00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:32.799 That God loved invisible people. 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:48.480 That Jesus Christ had something to do with not just the working poor, but with structures of violence and hegemony and oligarchy with unequal rights. 00:32:53.839 --> 00:33:08.160 Now this may surprise you, because I don't want to just unfurl you as a lint and discipline, but I'm going to tell you the purpose of discipleship, or quite honestly, the call of discipleship, is that you are called to martyrdom. 00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:14.960 You are called to bear witness to the living God rather than the dead one. 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:19.039 The odds are it's not going to cost you your life. 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:20.319 Not in this country. 00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:28.960 See, we have this Christian fiction that Christians are persecuted in the United States, and that is just incredible garbage rent. 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:33.599 In the past week, I've been to two different places of worship. 00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:35.920 Let me tell you how they're different from ours. 00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:45.359 The synagogue, right when you walk in the door, has a large TV that displays footage from eight cameras simultaneously. 00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:46.400 Eight. 00:34:00.640 --> 00:34:04.079 And the great odds are that person will be Christian. 00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:14.960 They have a buzzer to let anybody in, and on high holy days, they have a security guard and a metal detector. 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:31.280 That's here in Clear Lake, Texas, that our Jewish brothers and sisters are scared that Christians will bear witness to a God that wants them dead. 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:35.519 It's Christians that do this, friends. 00:34:38.559 --> 00:34:47.679 When I went to celebrate the Iftar, remember that's when Muslims break the fast at the end of the day by eating over at the Clear Lake Islamic Center. 00:34:47.760 --> 00:34:54.159 I didn't see all the cameras, but what I did see was the 300-pound armed bouncer at the door. 00:34:59.760 --> 00:35:04.480 Because Muslims are afraid of how we'll bear witness. 00:35:05.679 --> 00:35:07.199 Things we don't have at St. 00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:20.400 Thomas are bouncers on Easter and security cameras right when you walk at the door to make sure you weren't followed in by somebody who wants to kill you as an act of worship to their God. 00:35:20.639 --> 00:35:23.360 See, the truth is, we're all martyrs. 00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:26.000 We all bear witness to some God. 00:35:26.239 --> 00:35:27.679 The question is, which one? 00:35:28.880 --> 00:35:32.079 Which God do we bear witness to? 00:35:33.280 --> 00:35:40.400 The one that says, yeah, you're suffering, you probably deserved it, but there'll be heaven when you die. 00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:46.880 Or the one that says God cares about suffering. 00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:52.239 Turns out that there are things in the world that have a preferential option for the poor other than God. 00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:54.880 Those things are public health and disease. 00:35:55.119 --> 00:35:57.840 Those things are environmental pollution. 00:35:58.320 --> 00:36:01.760 The poorest people live by the landfills. 00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:03.360 No surprise. 00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:11.119 In Atlanta, and I suspect it's true in Houston, there was a major study of where the highways go. 00:36:11.519 --> 00:36:14.639 You know, it's hotter on the highways and right next to them. 00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:16.800 That's where the poor people live. 00:36:17.119 --> 00:36:22.480 Because there's a preferential option for degrading people who are already poor. 00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:27.360 Oscar Romero bore witness to that, and he was murdered for it. 00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:33.199 Now we think about sexuary. 00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:44.559 And probably a month ago, there was all this chatter on like Facebook pages and at like Christian conferences. 00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:49.519 Like, what are you gonna do if ICE agents come into your church? 00:36:50.159 --> 00:36:52.320 You know, to do a raid on people. 00:36:52.880 --> 00:36:55.920 Ice agents are coming into our church. 00:36:56.400 --> 00:36:57.920 Do you know why? 00:37:03.119 --> 00:37:10.880 Because the people who ICE would come raid do not perceive this to be a sanctuary. 00:37:12.159 --> 00:37:21.360 Consider that Bishop Romero was murdered at the altar in his vestments during communion in a sanctuary. 00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:28.800 And we take our safety for granted here because we can. 00:37:29.840 --> 00:37:30.559 Because we can. 00:37:56.960 --> 00:38:01.679 Which God do we bear witness to? 00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:19.119 Which the way we talk, with the way we wrote, and with the way we handle our garbage over done with it, which God do we bear witness to? 00:38:25.519 --> 00:38:48.800 And I think the whole reason we take on this momentum discipline, the idea of returning to the land and doing this earnestly is because we recognize that we sometimes just dip our deep in the life of Christ, in the blood of the Lamb, the life of Jesus. 00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:58.400 And Lynn bids us dip a little deeper, go a little further, love a little wider. 00:38:58.960 --> 00:39:02.079 So, in his own words, this is from Bishop Romero. 00:39:04.159 --> 00:39:11.039 For the church, the many abuses of human life, liberty and dignity are a heartfelt suffering. 00:39:11.599 --> 00:39:22.239 The church, entrusted with the earth's glory, believes that in each person is the Creator's image, and that everyone who tramples it offends God. 00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:29.119 As holy defender of God's rights and of God's images, the church must cry out. 00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:46.159 It takes as fiddle in its face, as lashes on its back, as the cross in its passion, all that human beings suffer, even though they be unbelievers, they suffer as God's image. 00:39:46.880 --> 00:39:52.239 There is no dichotomy between man and God's image, between woman and God's image. 00:39:52.480 --> 00:40:02.239 Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being, abuses God's image. 00:40:02.559 --> 00:40:09.119 And the church takes that as its own, that cross, that martyrdom.