In the Belly of the Whale, a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Javier Alanís, Assistant Professor of Theology, Culture and Mission at the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest, delivered April 5, 2005, in Christ Chapel

El Santo Evangelio Según San Mateo capitulo 12, versículos 38 al 42:

Una señal milagrosa:

Entonces algunos fariseos y maestros de la Ley le dijeron a Jesús: Maestro, queremos que hagas algo que nos pruebe que tu fuiste enviado por Dios. Pero Jesus les contestó:

Ustedes, que son malos y no confían en Dios, me piden darles una prueba. Pero la única prueba que les dare sera la del profeta Jonás: Así como Jonás estuvo tres días dentro del gran pez, así yo, el Hijo del hombre, estaré muerto derante tres días. En el juicio final, la gente de la ciudad de Nínive se levantará y hablará contra ustedes para que Dios los castigue. Porque esa gente si cambio de vida cuando oyo el mensaje que le dio Jonas. Pero ustedes oyen mi mensaje y no cambian, aunque yo soy mas imporante que Jonas.

La reina del Sur tambien se levantara en el dia del juicio, y hablara contra ustedes . Porque ella vino desde muy lejos a escuchar las sabias ensenanzas del rey Salomon, Pero ustedes no quieren esuchar mis ensenanzas, aunque yo soy mas importante que Solomon.

El Evangelio del Senor.

Let us pray: Oh Risen Lord, Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of each hear be acceptable to you, Oh lord Our God and Our Strength. Amen.

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Amen. Alleluia!

Well, on that note, the first thing we do is get rid of the lawyers! At least that's what Shakespeare suggested in his famous play, Henry the VI. And I suppose he had good reason to make that bold statement! Lawyers throughout history have been depicted as shysters or as greedy beasts of the hunt. Ambulance chasers they call them. In fact, some of them are my very dear friends! Of course, there are the occasional good ones! Any good lawyers in chapel today? Good! Then I'm in good company!! I was afraid I was going to be the only one here who used to be suspect in my former life; and in my case, a prosecutor.

In that role, I made sure that justice was served so that folks like you and me could be protected from the enemies of the state, from those folks involved in crimes against humanity or in civil disobedience, as some would argue these days in Arizona where even now as I speak minutemen and minute-women are protecting the border from the undocumented. Well, that was my job, too; the county and the state of Texas hired me for that purpose so I pursued justice with a vengeance! The State didn't want anyone disturbing the peace or being flagrant with our laws. Laws are there to protect us, and no one can argue with that rationale! So it was my job to prosecute all those men and women in orange prisoner uniforms who daily entered the courtroom to await the judgment of the court. We didn't see any miracles, there, I assure you! Those prisoners had to live by faith and rely on the mercy of the court.

Well, it's been a while since I was a prosecutor; I moved away from that arena of law and justice and by a sheer and mysterious "act of God", I find myself here of all places; nothing I would have expected or sought for myself! I'm a Lutheran, for God's sake! We Lutherans are pragmatic. We think about these things … … before we commit ourselves to a call, especially to one as inexplicable as serving God and God's people! All I can say now is that God has an incredible sense of humor and often tries our faith in the process of our calls.

I share this story about my previous vocation with you because when I read the Gospel text for today I knew we were going to need some humor. "Who me, I asked?" Comment on a text with the descriptor: "an evil and adulterous generation" when speaking of the religious community? You gotta be kidding! Nancy, where's Nancy? Why didn't you pick on Wayne for this text? He handles these texts really well! He grew up in Fredericksburg, for heaven's sakes! Do you have any idea how many pastors are retired and living there? I suspect they could use a little law and gospel from time to time!

Well, back to the text. The scribes and the Pharisees are looking for a sign from Jesus as evidence of his origin, or as the Spanish translation puts it, "that he comes from God." Curiously enough, a form of this debate is still raging in the public forum as evidenced recently in the Austin American Statesman concerning the person and resurrection of Jesus. You may have read the editorial by James Dee, a visiting scholar at the University of Texas, who wrote that "Some Christians now admit: Jesus is not risen" noting that 79 Catholic and Protestant scholars of the controversial Jesus Seminar concluded that all of the episodes of the Resurrection narratives are completely fictional and that the Resurrection of Jesus did not involve the resuscitation of a corpse … for the body of Jesus decayed as do other corpses." He goes on to argue that other scholars such as Gerd Ludemann "incisively demolishes the Resurrection accounts, including the visions of Peter and Paul. Ludemann states that "for 2000 years an abiding faith in Jesus' Resurrection has displayed enormous power, but because of its utter groundlessness we must now acknowledge that it has all along been a worldwide historical hoax."

Dee further argues that conventional belief is crumbling from within, and it is increasingly apparent that the founding event of Christianity can be defended only through ignorance or dishonesty." In the end, he attempts to debunk St. Anselm's theory of atonement and the Christian tradition in general noting that "it makes no sense that one person should die a torturous death for the expiation of the offenses of millions." As a trained Lawyer (and theologian on retainer at LSPS) I couldn't help but notice that this was Cartesian logic at its best. The resurrection really makes no sense, but then this argument has nothing to do with faith!

But quick to the draw (an art form made famous here in Texas) and responding in the spirit of a truly post-modern theological disputatio, our very own Dean Titus Presler jumped into the murky waters of faith by responding to Dee with his own apologia. In his response, titled, "The Resurrection is a matter of faith, not proof," Dean Presler argues that "the incarnation, cross and resurrection are one seamless fabric of God's solidarity, not simply with our spiritual longings, but with all that it means to be human.

The premise of the Jesus story is God's creation, which declares that God treasures the fullness of the universe and the fullness of humanity. The resurrection proclaims God's intention to restore all things in fullness of being. In this perspective, a resurrection without the body would be a non sequitur, harder to explain than resurrection with the body. God cherishes the fullness of what God created." He adds: "Yes, this is a matter of faith, not proof, which is true of the very existence of God. Yet if God exists, and if God created all things, the resurrection of Jesus is credible. It's a mystery that makes sense." End quote.

Dean Presler's remarks cry out for an Amen of faith, does it not?! Amen! And yet there are many skeptics of Christianity (and even within Christianity) who continue to ask and to seek for signs to explain the mystery of faith that we confess. We ourselves are not immune to this questioning and to the trails of faith that put into question our confession. Faith seeks understanding, wrote St. Anselm, and sometimes this journey of faith feels more like a dark night of the soul.

In his autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela writes that while in prison on Robben Island as a political prisoner he often felt as Jonah in the belly of the whale. In that dark cavern of a prison pit, he felt dehumanized by a system that attempted to strip him of his dignity, but as a man of faith he resisted his dehumanization with every ounce of his being believing that somehow life would triumph over death. His faith was put to the test by the evil system of Apartheid and a generation that could not see the evil of racism as incongruent with faith in God. What saved and redeemed Nelson Mandela was the awareness that he was created in the image and likeness of God. While in the belly of the beast for countless years, this faith and knowledge and awareness freed him from the shackles that would attempt to ensnare his body and corrupt his mind. His sign from God was his faith.

This past Friday evening, the faculty gathered to meet with the prospective students during our visitor's weekend. Dean Presler addressed the visitors saying that the world today is facing a crisis: of poverty, environmentalism, racism, nationalism, a crisis of the church as it struggles with the sexuality studies and its ramifications; in the end a crisis of faith; and yet God loves this world in crisis and calls us to service.

We see this kind of love and faith today as the whole world mourns the death of Pope John Paul II and remembers this man of faith for his seemingly countless contributions to humanity. Politicos and religious leaders throughout the world comment on his legacy as they recall his views on the sanctity of life and his defense of the human dignity of all people. They comment on his opposition to Apartheid and Communism and other evil systems such as Nazism and unchecked global capitalism. They remember his solidarity with the poor and his rebuke of presidents and dictators. But what perhaps distinguishes this historic man of faith above all things is his forgiveness of Ali Agca, the man who tried to murder him and who put him in the belly of the beast of death for a season. And yet, the Pope survived and chose to meet with his assassin in his prison cell to bring him the good news of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Recently during our Spring break I had the opportunity to visit with a former student and member of our own community, Eric Henstenberg, who was accused of murder last year while a student with us. I visited him in jail, a visit that was not unfamiliar to me as a former prosecutor. I walked into the tall multi-story prison in Fort Worth that houses hundreds of inmates awaiting trail, followed the security procedures, allowed the cameras to follow me around through the maze of halls and elevators while I held up a sign and number that allowed the faceless and invisible prison guards behind the cameras to identify me as a visitor in that dark cavern where cement walls surrounded me and where neon light lit my way. Once off the elevator I made my way to the booth where I would meet Eric for the first time since that fateful day last year when he was apprehended on our premises. We could only see each other through the glass pane between us and speak to one another through a phone receiver, like perhaps you may have seen in the film, "Dead Man Walking." We talked and talked and talked trying to stretch that half hour for as long as we could. We talked about life in the belly of the beast. He told me about his prison life behind those walls where 72 inmates were housed in his unit, on his floor, with only one prison guard on duty to monitor their movements. He told me there were no windows there with light streaming through them like we enjoy here, for he is a prisoner of the state of Texas for the alleged crime of homicide. There are only men there with him, some young and some as old as 78, some newly converted to the faith, and still others whose evidence of faith he has not witnessed. But all are in the belly of the beast. With his writing and advocacy skills, he told me that he advocates for them when they experience injustice by the system that incarcerates and often dehumanizes criminals.

He describes his time in prison as the "dark night of the soul" and his faith in God as the only thing that sustains him. He told me that his faith is being tested as never before and that his primary question of faith today is: "those songs of praise that I sang to my God in my freedom, did I truly mean them?" He knows now that the songs he sings in his heart while in the belly of the beast are songs of faith and trust in his God, songs of deliverance and redemption, songs that acknowledge that he, Eric, is alive, a sinner/saint, a child of God, a brother to us, and that even in what appears to be a death-like grip in the belly of the beast, a non-person in an orange uniform, and in exile from the community of faith, God is with him for he is a beloved son of God, created in God's image, and nothing, not even a prison cell, can separate him from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so with this kind of faith and trust and hope … with my hand stretched out to meet his hand across the glass pane that separated us, we prayed together as two brothers who are joined together by the promise of our baptism, one a former prosecutor, the other an alleged criminal awaiting trial, two brothers who once communed together with the people of God at this table of bread and wine, the evidence of the real presence of God among us.

The scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the law, wanted a sign from Jesus. The sign they received was the sign that was made over us at our baptism; the sign of the Cross, so that by faith in a Risen Lord we too might confess that nothing, not even death itself, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so with Jonah, and Nelson Mandela, the Pope, and Eric and all of the saints before us, we praise God with a song of freedom, of deliverance and thanksgiving … and together we confess: He is Risen! Amen!