Wicked?

3rd Sunday after Epiphany
January 26, 2025
St. Andrew Episcopal Church, Longmeadow, MA

Worship at St. Andrew was streamed to Facebook here: https://fb.watch/xnYyC1DvNs/

¹ All the people [of Israel] gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. ² Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. ³ He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. ⁵ And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. ⁶ Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lordwith their faces to the ground. ⁸ So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
  ⁹ And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. ¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” – Nehemiah 8 (selected verses)

¹⁴ Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵ He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

  ¹⁶ When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
 ¹⁸ “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,
 ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” – Luke 4:14-21

            My family and I are big fans of the musical and now motion picture Wicked, nominated this week for 10 Oscars. I have always liked it, but a few years ago my daughter really, really got into the music, which we now know by heart in our respective assigned parts. Besides the delight of magic, the wonderful costumes, and well-composed music, there is something absolutely captivating about the story. 

            In some ways, that because it’s an intentional retelling of an older story. The old Wizard of Oz story has clear good and evil and the wicked witch of the west is the enemy who must be destroyed. The good witch, Dorothy and her crew, and the residents of the land of Oz all join forces and defeat the enemy, sending Dorothy home, getting the heart’s desire of the lion, the tin man, and the scarecrow, and all live happily ever after. 

            In Wicked, however, though it opens in the context of this rejoicing at the death of the enemy, the whole narrative shifts as we come to understand Elphaba, the so-called wicked witch, as a marginalized outsider who cannot seem to control her passions and her rage at injustice. Over time she tries over and over again to right wrongs from outside the system sometimes with unintended disastrous consequences. And we meet Glinda the so-called good witch who presents as bubbly and shallow, but who underneath has and further develops deep empathy and kindness and tries to fix things from within the halls of power, sometimes also with unintended consequences. The two are forever changed by their unlikely friendship which develops in the face of confronting the Wizard, who, we discover, is just a simple man trying to do good but radically messing things up in the process. The characters are all just so…human. 

            It’s an saying, but still true – history is written by the victors. Who you see as the hero in the story depends on who you are and where you sit in the narrative. Wicked highlights that in delightful ways, inviting us into different perspectives on the story, different points of view, and ultimately a story about being deeply human.

So, beloved ones, much as I love to talk about Wicked, what I really want to ask is what story do we have to tell as the people of God in this time and place? How will we tell the story of our life with God? 

Today we have two scripture stories that are themselves about the story-telling. In the too-rarely quoted book of Nehemiah, the Hebrew people are gathering again in Jerusalem. Decades ago their kingdom was split and ultimately defeated, their temple destroyed, and many of their people sent into exile in a foreign land. They now find a remnant gathering again at what they hope will be the beginning of their rebuilding. They are not gathered to create and action plan and start rebuilding. First they gather to tell their story. They read the books of the law, the Torah, the story of God’s coming again and again with promises and covenants and new life in the face of slavery, exile, destruction, and death. They tell the story of God walking with God’s people. The story of God with us. The story of imperfect people stumbling along the path of faith with a God who never tires of walking with them. 

I cannot help but think of the people facing the rebuilding of their whole lives after devastating wildfires in California, after any of our natural disasters, or the smaller scale but no less devastating individual losses that come to our lives. In the face of this destruction I’ve seen people blaming God, blaming government officials, insurance companies, fire prevention methods; arguing about how much is related to climate change. We are looking for a story of fault. We could tell this story as one of right and wrong, good and bad, saved and not. While there are clearly things to learn and things to do differently in the future, I wish instead we could tell the story of God with us, with all of us, in the challenges we face that are beyond any of our capacity to overcome. 

Though hardly the same thing, you here at St. Andrew are also facing a rebuilding after a challenging few years of COVID, rebuilding, and the departure of your priest. You are standing at new threshold of what comes next. And part of the question you are being called to ask is how you’ll tell your story? Is it one of heroes and villains? One of winners and losers? Of success or failure? Or is it a story of how God has been with you as you travelled the long, winding, and often difficult journey of faith together as a community? Where have you seen God at work in the midst of hard moments? Where have you experienced God’s grace in this place and out in God’s wonderful world? 

            That’s the story we have to tell about where we’ve been. 

Fast forward several centuries from Ezra and Nehemiah to another congregation gathered to hear the stories of God’s people. The hometown boy turned preacher is prepared to share the word of God. Jesus unrolls the scroll of Isaiah. “Today! Fulfilled in your hearing, good news for the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, the oppressed set free, and here, now, is the year of God’s favor.” He is telling the story of God’s liberation of old, those centuries of stories of God’s people living their lives of faith and telling it in a way that brings it to the present moment and invites them into a new way of living going forward. It’s not a story only of the past, but a story of God working miracles then and there in the presence of Jesus. 

I think that is in part what Bishop Mariann Budde of the Diocese of Washington was speaking in her now well-known sermon from this past week’s national prayer service. She called for unity based not in superficial niceties or political posturing but in the dignity of all people, honesty in public and private discourse, and humility to recognize our own fallibility. She quoted Solzhenitsyn, “The line separating good from evil runs not between states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart.” We are in a time – by which I mean not this week, this month, this year, but this millennium when injustice reigns, where people are pushed to the margins, where people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake. And we can tell a story of heroes and villains – one in which we the tellers of the story are inevitably the heroes and the other people inevitably the villains. We are surely sometimes participants in God’s liberating work, sometimes the ones being set free, and sometimes, too, the ones who oppress others. But what Bishop Budde spoke was the story of God’s call for mercy that resounds not just today but in every age. In all the years to come, part of our story as baptized people of God is to call forth that good news to the poor, release to the captive, and the setting free of the oppressed in ways that allow us to see God’s bringing that to life in our own community. 

And so again I turn to you, beloveds of God at St. Andrew, how will you tell the story of the people you are becoming in this moment? Are you people focused on what you once were or where you’ve been? Or are you a people curious to see what new thing God is setting free in your midst? You are a people through whom God has accomplished a great deal in this past year – your church school, your creative arts ministry, your adult formation, your fellowship, your music and worship life, your support of the community through Lydia’s Closet, and so much more. Are you a people who tell the good news not just of a thriving parish but of a place where people encounter a living God who has the power to transform our lives, breath life into our bones, and gather us to resurrection here, now and forever? Because the ministry is not about St. Andrew’s successes or failures, but about experiencing God’s breaking into the life of our community and doing something new.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I fail to tell the story in that way. Sometimes I’m stuck – stuck in a story that is too simple, a story that is ultimately divisive or makes me and my side out to be the hero. Or I despair because I see the ways I fail to live out the values I believe or the liberation I long for or simply just fail to achieve what I intend. Sometimes I’m still in the black-and-white that begins the Wizard of Oz movie or the black-and-white thinking that persists in that story even when technicolor sweeps across the screen. But we are a people of a God who brings a new story to life, one full of beautiful complexity, broken humans swept up into God’s incredible work of liberation for all creation, and the opportunity always to live into new life after death. 

-Pastor Steven Wilco