Waiting on the World to Change

September 2, 2007

            I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  It was day three of MADD Camp… our high school camp designed around music, art, drama, and dance.  We had been practicing choral pieces for the final performance that is attended by family and friends on the last evening of camp, but we had not yet heard all of the solos or seen the dramatic acts that the campers were working on.  I was the “resident theologian” at MADD Camp this year, responsible for the evening reflection time, helping campers focus on the theme of peace and justice in God’s world.  It was a difficult yet timely subject for our camps. 

As the rehearsal began, two high girls stepped forward and claimed the microphones and began to sing John Mayer’s song, “Waiting on the World to Change.”  Now, if you are like me,  NPR is the radio station that is tuned in on the car radio and the CD player is loaded with your favorite songs, so you may never have heard John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change.”  

Tears came to my eyes and a lump formed in my throat and my mind raced as I heard the words.  Phrases flew by as I tried to grasp the words…

“Me and my friends, we’re all misunderstood.

They say we stand for nothing and there’s no way we ever could.

Now we see everything that’s going wrong with the world and those who lead it,

just feel like we don’t have the means to rise above and beat it.

So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change.”

“If we had the power to bring our neighbors home from war,

they would have never missed a Christmas… no more ribbons on their doors.

When you trust your television what you get is what you’ve got….”

Cause when they own the information, they can bend it all they want.

That’s why we’re waiting, waiting on the world to change.”

“We’re still waiting, waiting on the world to change.

            We keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change.

One day our generation’s going to rule the population

so we keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change.”

            That afternoon, as I thought through what our evening reflection time would include, I knew that we had to talk about waiting.  Actually, I knew that we had to talk about not waiting.  As followers to Jesus Christ we’ve got to understand that there is no time left to keep waiting on the world to change.  We don’t have that luxury anymore… maybe we never really did.  While there is much in our world that brings us joy and happiness, we also know that there is much in the world today that is, to quote the song lyrics, “going wrong” and God can’t make things better without us.  As people of faith we must live the change that we believe God wants for this world.

            That evening, as we gathered for “theologian time” as it is called at MADD Camp, we talked about God’s call in our lives to get off the fence and stop waiting for the world to change.  I confessed to the high school youth my generation’s failure to make a positive difference in the world.  I apologized to them for the world that they are inheriting from us and then I read to them from The Message. 

            “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work life – and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God.  Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You’ll be changed for the inside out.”

            I have got to believe that it is not too late that make a difference in our world.  I have got to believe that people of faith can and will come together and choose to take our everyday, ordinary lives and be changed from the inside out so that we can be about the business of changing the world.  And our world needs changing.  You see, I cannot believe that God is happy when even one child anywhere in the world goes to bed hungry or wakes up not knowing if they will have clean water to drink.  I cannot believe that God is pleased when even one person kills another person in any act of violence or war.  I cannot believe that God is happy when even one of God’s beloved is hated by another because of the color of their skin or the place of their birth or who they love or even what they believe or how they vote.  I cannot believe that God is pleased when we disregard Creation.   But I also cannot believe that God has given up on us.  God is counting on us to stop waiting and change ourselves and in the process, change the world.

            In her new book Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass, reminds us that “conversion is a continual process of discipleship of the individual and the Christian community.”  As we listen to “the needs and concerns of the global community” we are called to make a “change in lifestyle” – a change that will bring about the transformation of God’s world.  She reminds us that “we feed the hungry and provide for the homeless” … that “we bear witness to the sort of people God calls us to be in our jobs and at school” … that “we pray for our enemies” because this is how we practice our faith.  Waiting on the world to change isn’t a faithful response to the needs of God’s world.  Choosing to make changes as we respond to the needs that are all around us is a part of practicing our faith.  It is a part of following Christ in our everyday, ordinary lives.  It is a part of embracing what God is doing in our lives.

            In just a few moments, we will be gathering around the Communion Table and breaking bread together.  I remember a time not all that many years ago when I was at high school church camp as a camper and we gathered around a Communion Table to break bread.  I don’t know if it’s true but the pastor told us that, in Jesus’ day, when people gathered around any table to share a meal together, the host would break bread and pass the loaf around the table.  It was understood that anyone at the table who took a piece of that bread was entering into a covenant relationship with the host.  If you were planning to cheat your host in a business deal the next day, you passed the loaf onto to your neighbor without taking a piece of bread.  If you were unwilling to promise that you would live with respect and in harmony with your host, you passed the loaf on by.  The bread was a symbol of a covenantal relationship. 

            It still is.  As we come to this table this morning, we are entering into a new covenant with Jesus Christ, promising to live with respect and in harmony as his followers.  As we break bread together we are making the commitment to take our everyday, ordinary lives –our sleeping, eating, going-to-work lives – and place them before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for us is the best thing we can do for God.  As we gather at this table we are making the commitment to stop the waiting – God can’t make things better without us.

John Stuart, a retired pastor, shares a story in the most recent edition of “Alive Now.”  He shares an experience  of having coffee in a fast-food restaurant before Sunday school.  He noticed at one of the tables a woman was sitting alone.  She was unkempt, unwashed, and untidy and was having a conversation with an imaginary companion.  Every now and then, she looked over to John and his wife, smiled sweetly, and then continued talking to herself.  After a few minutes, one of the servers came over to sit down for her breakfast break.  At first John thought she was going to ask the woman to leave.  Instead she sat down beside her and carefully halved her sausage biscuit with the woman.  It was a beautiful and sacred moment.  A Holy Communion was taking place before their eyes.

We are surrounded by faith-filled people who are choosing not to wait on the world to change.  We are surrounded by faith-filled people of all persuasions who understand that God cannot make things better without us.  In beautiful and sacred moments and in beautiful and sacred ways, Holy Communion is taking place as people take their everyday, ordinary lives and place them before God.  What are we waiting for?