Over ten years ago, my sister sat on the banks of a river on the

Thai Burmese border and held the hand of a young Kareni boy, 

an indigenous boy of Burma, a boy whose family had been killed, a boy who had wanted to be a doctor,  a boy who had lost his homeland.  10 years ago, by the waters, they sat.

On the night of October 12th this year, Htay Kywe,

one of the last remaining leaders of the 88 Burmese Student Generation, a group of young people who had joined with the monks in their march for democracy, was arrested.

The military continues to hunt down those who speak out.

Already thousands have been arrested, many have been disappeared, torture is known to be occurring, and over a dozen people have been killed.. 

Are your teeth set on edge? 

Do you wince every time you open a newspaper or turn on the news?
Are you sick in your soul of people plucking up and overthrowing
and destroying and bringing evil?
Is it time for a new song?
A new sowing?

A sowing of seed and a growing of crops?
Our two readings today take us on a journey,
a journey from despair into hope,
a journey from desolation to consolation.
In the first reading, the one from the prophet Jerimaih
the people of Judah and Jeusalem feel abandoned by God,
they feel at a terrible loss.

Here they are in exile, separated from their beloved city,
many 1000’s of them have been deported to Babylon,
the city walls have been breached and the temple broken.
But then, through the prophet Jerimiah,
god sings to the people a song of consolation a song of hope:
No longer will their teeth be set on edge! I will put my law within them,
I will write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people’ And I will be their God and they will be my people.

In the reading from Luke our journey begins with a weeping widow,
a woman who reperesnt all sorrow, all poverty, all vulnerability
and she is yearning, aching, keening for change.
And so she goes to the judge,
the unjust judge and even though he keeps denying her she does not give up,
she persists against all odds and
eventually her cries are answered.

According to Luke, Jesus gives us this parable to remind us to pray always
and to not lose heart.
Today we celebrate the 62nd anniversary of the birth of the United Nations.
A dream born from folk seeking justice,
from folk whose teeth had been set on edge one two many times
and who decided to do something about it
by planting a new crop, a crop of nations growing together,
a crop of diverse cultures and creeds,
religions and faiths,
a crop which attempted to bring forth food of peace.
Created after the inhumanity of World War II,
the United Nations intended to protect and promote the basic human rights
of all citizens of the world, while working to eliminate the scourge of war, instability, and the disconnection of the nations.
Throughout history, the world has witnessed a breathtaking amount of human affliction and suffering much of which can be tied to violent conflicts, political instability, and unjust policies and practices.
Now the ideal United Nations, like the weeping widow begging the unjust judge, would petition the world to wake up and live as one,
And the ideal United Nations, like God in Jerimiah,
would attempt to write a new law inside all our hearts.

And the ideal United Nations would have intervened, before it was too late,

in the recent conflicts at Rwanda and Darfur and of course in Burma.
But, unfortunately, we do not have the ideal United Nations,
we have a flawed,
at time corrupt,
at times broken,
gathering together of lobby groups, big business, treaty makers and true hearts muddling together with all their complex agendas and desires.

We have in other words, humanity, in all its shadow and light.
Burma is one of the most forgotten areas of the world;
it is a place where mass displacement, forced labor, rape and torture.
It is a place where the democratically elected leader has been under house arrest for years.

These mass atrocities have been able to continue
because of the support of countries (who are members of the UN )
whose cash, weapons, and political support
ensure that the generals´ grip on power will remain.
These countries have paralyzed the UN Security Council into inaction
and use their veto power to ensure that the latest uprising in Burma,
an uprising of a people crying out for democracy
will continue to be violently suppressed.

‘By the waters of Babylon we lay down and wept’
To truly celebrate the UN we need to be as persistent as the widow who appeals for justice and demand action.
To truly celebrate the UN we need to be God in Jeremiah and write a new law in its heart.
A law which reminds it and us that we are all one people,
United, holy, whole
and that it is up to us to plant a new crop and to sing a new song.