Shepherds: Week 3, Óscar Romero

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0:00 I'm curious in the room, there's not a right or wrong answer here, but I'm curious in the room who has heard of Oscar Romero before. If you have heard of Oscar Romero before, can I see a hand? Oh, not very many of us. I was trying to think of how I first heard of Oscar Romero in college. I was a religion major at the University of Florida, and I was trying to think of how that happened, and I realized one of my favorite professors in my undergraduate study was from El Salvador.

0:40 And Oscar Romero at one point was the Archbishop of El Salvador, so it might have been that professor that turns me on to Oscar Romero. He was just recently canonized by the Catholic Church. They made him an official saint in the Catholic Church, which is a big deal. It was kind of a long time coming. But I think Oscar Romero has something to offer those of us in the Church today, his life and witness story.

1:23 Before we get there, I do want to look at our scripture for this morning. So if you have a paper copy of the scriptures, well, either way, you have a copy of the scriptures, we're in first John. If you have a paper copy, first John is all the way towards the back of your scriptures. These letters are really fun, the letters of John. There's three of them. When I was learning the books of the Testament, it was, we always said, three John's, Jude and Revelation. Those are the last books of the Bible.

2:00 And we're looking at first John. And there's a whole section that it would be fun to read the whole section, but we're just going to read two little excerpts of this section in first John chapter three. Let's start at verse 11, first John chapter three, verse 11.

2:32 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was the evil one and murdered his brother as a whole story there. John asked, and why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Like I said, there's a whole story there. We want to get into it today. Verse 13, do not to be, but the moral that he's drawing from that story of Cain and Abel comes in verse 13, do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

3:11 We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. It's really interesting right there, John, saying, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Your capacity to love people well is evidence of the working of the spirit in you, of the regeneration of God, of God remaking you into the kind of human who can love well.

3:42 Your genuine, authentic, helpful love of your brothers is evidence of the working of God in you. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Verse 16, do not to be loved, but he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Recently, several weeks ago when we were going over the values of the reign of God, we went over this deep value of love and tried to define love.

4:19 The definition I've been working with from love, in order to get to a definition of love, it has to find its fullest example in the cross. The cross is the pinnacle example of love. And so I've been working with this definition of solidarity, acts of solidarity and self-sacrifice. Standing with someone other than yourself, acts your own cost, demonstrates acts of love. And so John is consistent with that here in First John, who says, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

4:54 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but indeed in truth. So one of the things I want to encourage us in this time is we've been thinking about, this is like a long spin-out from Pentecost. We've been on the last several weeks. If you've been tracking with the themes of our gatherings since Pentecost, all the way back in late spring, at Pentecost, God empowers people with the original spirit of God in order to be the church.

5:40 It will take that original, divine spirit embodying and enlivening humanity if they will be the church, because he has ascended to Heaven and left a small group of them in Israel, and they will promptly be persecuted by the church and spread throughout the world in a world that does not recognize the authority of Jesus, nor does it celebrate the values of the reign of God. And if he is going to dispatch a group of people who embody life under the reign of God in order that all humanity would find themselves back, or find their way back to the God through those people, they're going to need the spirit.

6:23 Then he does something different, which we've been tracking, is once he gives them the spirit, they have the capacity then to begin to embody the cultural values. They have a cultural value around work, around love, around money, right? They have a cultural value around mercy, around wrath. As they begin to embody these values, then he also gives them a small-ass shepherd. He gives them leaders to follow. So we begin looking at God as a shepherd in Scripture, and now what I want to encourage you is that God not only gives the good shepherd Jesus, but in your life,

7:01 if you are willing, God gives you other examples, small shepherds, to lead you. And what I'm encouraging us to do is think through who those shepherds have been for us in our lives, and begin to make intentional choices about who those shepherds will be for us now. And a small point of clarification, I realize that this conversation about leadership is happening as we're like America, the state, it's having a large conversation about leadership.

7:38 So when I talk about shepherds and leaders for you, I'm talking about leaders in the reign of God, your first citizenship as people of the faith, as those baptized and redeemed by Jesus, your first citizenship is under those who are not. Your first citizenship is under the reign of God. And then as a colony of the reign of God, waiting for Christ's return, you happen to live in the United States and make educated, responsible choices about how you represent that reign to the government that we live underneath and respect.

8:13 But when I talk about leaders, I'm not talking about how you make political choices, I'm talking about how you recognize that you have been given leaders on how to live under the reign of God in a world that doesn't recognize this. And last is we talked about Elijah. That message was really encouraging for me. It's a story that I haven't spent a lot of time on before, but it was very timely for me to hear. The first part of that message last week said that even in some scholars call Elijah Mr. Prophet, he's the prototype of the prophet, the one who speaks for God.

8:50 Even Mr. Prophet gets tired of the work in the world. And in his exhaustion, God meets him with a miraculous meal, and Elijah enjoys the miracle and goes back to sleep. Then he gets a second miraculous meal and he goes to meet with God, and God sends him back out to work. And I love this about our God. It's probably because I really like work. At critical points, God is always sending his people back to work.

9:25 Elijah is exhausted. He meets with God face to face. God says, you're going to be okay. There's 7,000 out of 1,000 made of bail. Now get back to work. Reminds me immediately of when Peter has a conversation with the resurrected Christ. They're walking on the beach, and Peter's heartbroken that he denounced that he even knew Jesus 3 times. And Jesus says, Peter, do you love me? Peter says, of course I love you. And then Jesus tells him, well, then get back to work. Feed my sheep.

10:00 I love the idea that Jesus accomplishes the salvation of the world, the miraculous death and resurrection of the incarnate Word of God. And what does he do? After he accomplishes the death and resurrection, he promptly leaves and puts his 12 to work. Hey guys, go get to work. I love that God empowers us and puts us to work. And so that mess is awesome. With Elijah was really encouraging to me.

10:30 I want to jump into contemporary history and look at this story of Oscar Romero. He was born in 1917 in El Salvador to a family with a lot of kids and not a lot of money. He had very limited schooling and then a princess with his dad who was a carpenter and showed real promise. His dad wanted to give him the carpentry business, but Oscar Romero wanted to become a priest. At 13 he attended the beginnings of seminary. At 13 he went to seminary. He got some 13-year-olds in the room.

11:05 And then he went to Rome and finished in Rome. Really smart early ahead of the time before he was supposed to. As a matter of fact, he finished seminary in Rome and had to wait a year to get ordained because he was too young to be ordained. They had a threshold of how old you could be. Then he stayed on there and got a PhD. And he went to come back. He got called back by the bishop to serve in El Salvador. And when you read the story, it was really tough. It was right around World War II.

11:35 And he had trouble getting back. As a matter of fact, he got waylaid in an internment camp in Cuba for a while. Then he was finally able to get out of it on medical leave because he had to go to the hospital. He was so beat up at a concentration camp in Cuba. He made it to Mexico. And from Mexico got back down to El Salvador and started serving as a priest. Oscar Romero was really smart. At one point he may have been diagnosed with OCD. He was really focused on the details. He was known for being a social conservative in a time in El Salvador. So coming out of World War II, he began his priesthood among the poor.

12:11 But he was always in this small sect of the Catholic Church called Opus Day, which was known for being very conservative. Appreciate the Latin Mass even coming out of the Second Vatican Council where there's this reform in the church. This is important because he was among the poor, but socially conservative. As you know in Central America there, then we're getting into the late 60s, early 70s. You see a big disparity of wealth. You see oligarchies running all of these countries, right?

12:43 And hoarding all of the wealth and then abusing the poor. So then you see the poor start to uprise. And in the 70s is when we have the communist revolutions trying to overthrow the and the Catholic churches right there. And the Catholic Church always at that time sided with the mostly at that time sided with the government. And the government is known, especially in El Salvador. Now we're in the middle 70s, to be violently put in down the poor and the uprising.

13:20 They had what they called death squads to go and put out the poor who were uprising with fears of communism. Into this situation, Oscar Romero gets ordained first in auxiliary bishop and then the archbishop of El Salvador. And he gets promoted to archbishop of El Salvador because everyone is sure they're so excited, especially the wealthy and the government are excited that Oscar Romero is now their archbishop

13:54 because the church has such a voice with the people. They have parishes all throughout the country. They're delivering math and the eucharist. And some of the priests are working on issues to try and help the poor be self-sufficient, right? So that they can start to build their own wealth and step out of the government systems. And this is a concern because they're sure that that will feed the communist revolution and overthrow the... So they need the Catholic Church to legitimize the government and they're excited that Romero is there, he'll legitimize the government.

14:29 He's conservative, he recognizes the importance of maintaining law and order. But Romero was conservative. But did his job, meaning he went out and was with the people. He has a famous phrase that he was converted by the poor.

15:03 Where he saw the great tragedy of poverty and abuse of power. And a critical point, a good friend of his was killed. They don't know who by the government or the guerrillas. But it was in retaliation for his work with the poor. And Oscar Romero looks at him and says if they could kill him for what he's done, I need to begin doing the work.

15:35 Romero represented the church well at a time of chaos. I don't know about you, but in my circles I'm hearing more stories of confusion and heartbreak and resentment at the positions and posture of the church in America.

16:07 Of Christians in America. I just seen it. I mean I know it's always been out there and part of my life, especially my grown up life, my last 10, 15 years, has been about trying to embody faith more than denounce lack of faith.

16:38 Trying to say, trying to pursue what the church is supposed to be instead of talk about what the church is supposed to talk about instead of merely performing. So I've always known that there's a problem with the way that Christians represent themselves in the world, but it feels like right now that problem is louder. This is why I like, I know I love Oscar Romero. When the church, so much of the church was siding with the government going, just keep the peace.

17:12 We know that they are unjust and tyrannical. We know that they are abusing the poor, but this is the authority structure to support them. And on the other side, there was like violence uprising. There was armed the poor overthrow the government. And in the middle was Oscar Romero saying at one critical point, they would have they would have math in different places so that the poor didn't associate with the wealthy.

17:49 Oscar Romero at a critical juncture said we're having one mass only so that all the people came together in the cathedral. And he preached about Christ's preferential option for the poor. That he was always found among the poor. He began to advocate for stopping the killing, like kind of base level. Hey, let's stop killing. Let's move towards the marginalized and the disenfranchised.

18:21 Let's understand the problem and imagine solutions because we are debasing the image of God in these socially marginalized disenfranchised people. We need to mind what's happening and celebrate their dignity. And to speak out loud, he had one thing to sermon because the government was starting to empower military to take lives of people kind of indiscriminately. Oscar Romero preaches. He began to become the definitive distributor of news.

18:53 You would say names of people who had been disappeared and killed over his weekly messages. He produced a newspaper. People began to look to the church to know what was actually happening in the world. Who was being, whose lives were being taken and who was doing the taking. And he broadcasts his message over radio. They think at 1.80% of the country was listening to his messages on the radio in El Salvador. We're now in the late 1970s. In 1980, he preaches a sermon where he says on the radio, hey, soldiers, when you're get orders that violate your conscience or your submission to Christ,

19:33 you don't have to follow those. As a matter of fact, I order you in the name of Jesus to stop the killing. He serves us on the radio. The next day he's in his parish practicing mass. And while he's celebrating communion, a death squad comes with the highest sniper and kills him at the altar administering communion. Dr. Romero went from conservative, careful, measured theologian to recklessly abandon the love of people.

20:14 He knew when he made that statement in the sermon. The next day he was killed. He knew when he made that statement what he was doing. I was thinking about this passage that we read from John that said, let us not love in word, but let us love in deeds. And I was thinking about Oscar Romero preaching that message, knowing what it would get him.

20:45 Standing at the altar celebrating that mass. I wonder if I've ever been that confident about a thing. That I would risk so much for something. I wonder where I am risking for the sake of the gospel. I wonder how I am moving in love, solidarity and self-sacrifice.

21:24 Look, we all have a lot happening. We are busy people in a busy culture in a crazy time. But just for a moment, let me be the voice that encourages you. Some of that is not worth it. Oscar Romero in a time of craziness recognized the moment that the world needed the church and then looked at where his heart was, what tools were at his disposal,

22:02 and began to risk for the solidarity and self-sacrifice on behalf of others. Act of love out into the world. And what I want to say is that Oscar Romero had a unique power and position. He was an archbishop. That's a big deal. You and I aren't going to preach messages that are heard by 70% of our country. But the movement in Oscar Romero, the movement, the conversion by the poor, the movement out of stayed careful into Rick's taker on behalf of the gospel.

22:43 That movement can happen in all of us. You have the capacity, the same as Jesus, to be the church. To move in solidarity and self-sacrifice for the sake of the others. Romero moves all the way there, solitary and ultimate self-sacrifice. Knowing he lays down his life because the cause of the reign of God is worth it.

23:25 I was thinking about how that happened for him because we cannot manufacture love. We cannot manufacture the capacity to sacrifice ourselves in solidarity with someone else. It can't just decide to feel a certain kind of way. His friend, Rotilio Grande, I can't remember.

23:56 I think it's current Bishop, that said the gift of the martyr Rotilio Grande is the martyr Oscar Romero. The first thing Romero did, in order to awaken a heart of love, a critical choice he made was he picked his friends well. He's known for sharing his life with this guy, Rotilio Grande, who is sacrificing himself on behalf of the poor.

24:29 So that when he gave up his life as a martyr, he called Romero to action, but it had started way before then. If you want to be a person who is able to faithfully be the church in a world that is progressively odd, you need to pick who your friends are. You need to be found among the church if you want to have the capacity to be the church.

24:59 Oscar Romero picked his friends well. He was found amongst the church. He worked in you something when you are around the people of faith, the people making choices like you would like to make. Choose your friends well. The other thing he did, and he did this progressively, as he got more authority, he was found more among the poor.

25:33 He documented very well. He didn't create the phrase, but he popularized the phrase the preferential option for the poor. He chose the poor not because it was the right thing to do or because it had the right optics or because he knew he could save them. He actually knew he couldn't save them. He chose the poor because he saw throughout the story of Scripture God choosing the poor. He said, if I'm going to be the church, I ought to be a person like the God, like Jesus. He went and spent time among the poor. To the point where he said, and he quoted the same several times, it was the poor that converted me to the poor.

26:12 He said, I see the face of Christ among the poor. If we want to be people who care about others, we need to pick friends who care about others, and we need to find ourselves around others. Audit your life. What issues are you exposing? What people are you around? Listen, you carry the spirit of God.

26:46 In the spirit of God is the capacity to love and give yourself even unto death. You have that inside of you. The capacity to be the church with reckless abandon. It only needs to be awakened as you are around the church and see the need. It will take intentional choices.

27:20 As I thought this morning and this week about Oscar Romero and the movement he made, the choices he made, the messages he preached up until they take his life. I thought, what singular focus he must have felt? What places of conviction? I would like to be that sure of my job in the world.

27:54 I would love to be that confident of the work that God has given me. It will cost you something to be the church. To make choices about who you are around and what issues you move towards it. You will have to sacrifice some other things. It will be difficult and uncomfortable. But the payoff of being the church is the clarity that it lies against on the mountain of God where he knows from God what his job is.

28:29 So clearly in fact that he gives himself to the thing fully. Same with Peter. He knows clearly what his job is. So the much that he continues on his job and not even death would take him off the mission. What kind of clarity and purpose in life is there when not even death can move you off the mark. That's the sort of thing I'm looking for. And if I take my cues from Romero one of the ways I get there as I surround myself with people of the church, I pick my friends well and I find the issues that God cares about and I am found there as well.

29:05 And I wait for the spirit to convert me to awaken the capacity to be church inside of me. I know it is there. John says, I'll read it one more time for you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death and everyone who hates his brothers and murdered him.

29:37 By this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Let me pray. And Lord, thank you for the example of Oscar Romero. Such clarity and direction. Even more such hope to continue to announce the true call of the church amongst confusion and misrepresentation.

30:19 Lord, teach us a similar faith. Guide our actions, our steps, our thoughts towards the call to be the church today in a world that needs representatives of your gospel. And Jesus name me, pray. Amen.