SERMON NOTES FOR 1.24.10
Our body language says much more than our words – so experts in communications tell us. People who are truly masters at communicating with others – famous orators from Ronald Reagan to Martin Luther King Jr. – share one interesting trait. It’s that their body language is perfectly aligned with the words they say. Their body language communicates to us honesty and conviction. And our body language can transform the world.
I’ve recently been reading a fascinating book on world transformation: The Year That Changed the World –by Michael Meyers, about the year 1989. Meyer was Newsweek’s editor for Germany and Eastern Europe from 1988-1992, and he had the privilege of witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Iron Curtain. One of the fascinating things about the book is the part that body language played in this drama of world transformation. He tells the story of how a wink and two shrugs changed the world.
Miklos Nemeth, Hungary’s prime minister, with a small group of advisers, played a vital but very quiet role in the end of the Iron Curtain: they believed it was time for communism to end. In this belief, Nemeth was joining with millions of people who had begun yearning for freedom, believing it could happen – there was a spirit, perhaps caused by Gorbachev’s glasnost, perhaps caused by economic troubles, perhaps caused by a new generation of people hoping for a new way of life – whatever caused it, it was the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, that animated millions of people.
Caught up with this spirit, the zeitgeist of the age, Nemeth decided to open Hungary’s border with Austria, and let Hungarian people travel freely. Nemeth went to a Warsaw Pact Summit in early 1989, explained his plan, and came under withering attack from the other Eastern European leaders present. Sitting across the table from Gorbachev, the new USSR leader and champion of glasnost, listening to the other leaders shouting at him, Nemeth glanced at Gorbachev – and Gorbachev winked. Gorbachev winked, as if to say, “I know these guys are a bunch of clowns.”
With that, Nemeth knew he was home free – Hungary could do what it liked, and the USSR would not interfere. A wink from Gorbachev, and Hungary dismantled the Iron Curtain: body language.
Meyer goes on to tell the story of two shrugs that brought down the Berlin Wall. On November 9, 1989, in East Germany, at 5:00 p.m., official Gunter Schabowski stopped by the president’s office on way to a press conference and asked – anything new to report? The President, Egon Krenz, handed him a press release that was planned for the following day. It said that (under pressure from the Hungarian decision) East Germany’s borders would be opened and people allowed to travel freely. Officials had planned this carefully, with strict rules – there was a visa requirement, only a 30 day stay abroad would be allowed, family members must stay behond – but none of this was explained in the press release, or to Schabowski.
Schabowski read the press release to the press corps and the room was electrified. When would this take effect? someone asked. You can still see the press conference in YouTube clips – although it’s in German you can understand what is happening. Schabowski looks puzzled at the question, puts on his glasses, shuffles through some papers, tries to figure it out. Then – body language: he finally gives a shrug – soforth, he says – immediately.
East Germans who saw it on the evening news began to gather at the Berlin Wall. The border guards had been given no instructions. Meyer, standing in East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie where thousands of people are gathering, watches a border guard in his little enclosure making phone call after phone call, trying to get instructions and failing to reach anyone. Finally, the commander gives a shrug – body language – and says “Open the gates.” And with that, the gates were opened – and the Wall came down. On the strength of one Soviet wink and two ineloquent German shrugs, the world was transformed overnight. It’s all about body language.
Our body language says a lot more than our words, when we act as the Body of Christ. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians talks about who we are as Christians: more than just a collection of individuals forming a club or even a community. We are a body, a system, an organism –all interdependent on one another. It’s not that the poor need the rich, not that the earthquake victims in Haiti need the aid of their American brothers and sisters – it’s that every Christian needs every other Christian – we all have gifts to give each other. Every member of this church, this Body of Christ, is dependent on every other. Each of us has gifts that are vital and unique; this Body cannot accomplish its mission without the gifts of every member.
And, like every organism, we speak with our bodies as well as our words. The Body of Christ has many well-known words. But actions speak louder than words – our actions, our Body language tell the world what our true mission is. Too often, the Church’s actions have told the world that its mission has to do with things like holding onto power, creating structures of authority. But if we want to know what our true mission is intended to be, if we want to know what kind of world transformation Jesus is truly calling this Body to be God’s instrument in achieving, we should look carefully at today’s Gospel.
Jesus’ first sermon is what many people call his “mission statement” – he quotes from the prophet Isaiah and says, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. The words that Isaiah said so long before have now become more than words – they have been embodied, they have taken shape and are being lived out in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. And the mission of that embodied Christ is this: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Christ’s mission is a mission that brings together words and action; it is a mission that proclaims the good news of God embodied in Jesus Christ, and it is a mission that puts those words into concrete and measurable action, in opening the eyes of the blind, giving freedom to those who are oppressed, to give the good news of God’s salvation to the poor and the hopeless. It is Christ’s Body language in the world, as Jesus’ body language put his mission into practice – in healings, teachings, compassion for the poor. And this is your mission and it is mine, as members of the Body of Christ.
St. Teresa of Avila said: Christ has no body on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours. Ours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out upon the world. Ours are the feet with which he goes about doing good. Ours are the hands with which he blesses his people now. Christ has no body on earth but ours.
We are the Body of Christ, and in this Church of the Nativity, in the year 2010, this mission of Christ is our mission: Christ’s body language is ours. The Holy Spirit is the zeitgeist that animates this Body of Christ, the Holy Spirit anoints us for God’s mission here on earth. And we have started to accomplish this mission, here at Nativity –through our words and actions, through education, outreach, service to community, our love for each other – we are proclaiming and doing the work of Christ. I invite you to stay after this service for our annual meeting and consider with us, how Christ is calling us, his Body here on earth, to carry out his mission, here, today.
But first- one more story from The Year that Changed the World. Just a couple of weeks after the Berlin Wall fell, came the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia – the Velvet Revolution, engineered by Vaclav Havel. Meyer was there too – and he tells the story of a rally in Letna Park, Prague.
Snow began to filter down, lightly at first and then more thickly. A horse-drawn cart left the park, decked out with banners and the wings of angels, and the people began to follow. One by one, the half million at Letna joined hands and in single file began to walk toward Wenceslas Square, more than a mile and a half away, scarcely saying a word in the gently falling snow. For me, this was the moment [the Velvet Revolution was won]. To this day, I can hardly remember it without tears. The rickety old cart with its angel wings, the bells on the horses. The people following, always hand in hand. It was so gentle, so strong and irresistible. Of course I followed, too. The procession slowly wound its way through the paths and woodlands of the park, now covered in white. It snaked down the medieval streets behind the castle and then into the square in front of the darkened presidential palace…. For hours the procession passed. Half of Prague joined the human chain. From the castle it wound down the steep hills into Mala Strana, past the great baroque cathedral, its ornate spires lit in the snowy night … through the narrow streets of Old Town and finally into Narodni Street, where lit candles marked the [savage massacre] of November 17…. And still the procession came, everyone swinging their arms skipping, happy, joyous. The first of the marchers had reached Wenceslas Square … while the last still waited patiently at Letna, high in the snowy hills. Hand in hand, they bisected the city. Hand in hand, they drew a line. Here, on one side, stood the people, on the other their oppressors. This was the moment. Everyone had to choose. From above the city, I looked out at Prague, lighted and luminous in the snow, its people dancing. O silent night. O holy night. Never in my life have I seen anything so beautiful. I doubt I ever will again.
Brothers and Sisters, we are the Body of Christ. We are the Body God has created here, to stand in the dark and the cold, between this world’s people and its oppressors, between God’s beloved children and the forces of evil that keep us from our true humanity. We follow the savior who proclaims freedom to all who are oppressed – oppressed in body, mind or spirit – oppressed by economic circumstance or physical illness – oppressed by spiritual emptiness or simple yearning for a deeply meaningful life. We are the ones whom God has sent, to proclaim good news to all the world. And we are the ones to whom Christ says, today: the Spirit of the Lord is upon us – because God has anointed us to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
