Those
paying close attention to the lectionary may be a bit surprised by the OT
readings today. Those, or the folks who
hope I will repeat sermons, I suppose.
We have a choice between the histories and the prophets this year. As we did the histories three years ago, this
year we will be following the selections from the prophets during the time
after Pentecost. Consider it my way of
trying to help fight the biblical illiteracy decried by Archbishop Sentamu this
weekend in the British Press.
I was
reminded of the prophet tract by David last night. Karen had headed upstairs to get ready for
bed, and David was practicing his reading since he was a scheduled lector. I was finishing part of my cross stitch when
David asked, “Hey, Dad, what’s a glorious bosom? (long o sounds)” My mind was
not on the reading as I had planned to preach on Luke, so I asked what he was
talking about. Once I was in the right
context, I corrected his pronunciation.
Naturally, David asked what a glorious bosom was. It’s at this point, of course, that my sin
nature and dad nature are at war. I
could say something that would totally gross out his older siblings when
referring to his mom and cut off further questions, or I could take the direct
route and risk questions, knowing she was upstairs and skipping what could be
an important and awkward series of questions.
It was a war, but I went direct.
David, who watched mom nurse a couple younger siblings just responded
“Oh, so God is like a nursing mom?” Yep.
Y’all are
laughing because you know all the ways that conversation could have gone,
especially with an absent mom. But it is
a good image for us to keep in mind—God is like a nursing mom. It’s biblical. It’s speaks directly against the imagined
misogyny of Scripture. Plus, it reminds
us that the work that Rosemary and Jane and Katie and Lindy and, let’s face it
all moms, is appropriate, God-given, God-blessed, and whatever other spiritual
wedgie misogynists need to hear.
As good as
it might be for us to dwell on this particular image of God, I was pushed to
our reading from Luke. In truth, social
media was a large impetus, but normal media and other conversations within the
church and at the Y made me realize how important the commands are of Jesus to
us. Rather, I was reminded how important
they should be to us because the world definitely needs more disciples of His
at work in the world.
The Gospel
lesson is pretty well known. If you have
ever been to an ordination, this Gospel lesson is often read. The problem, of course, is that we tend to
think the sermons preached at those events means the passage is more directed
at the so-called professional or ordained clergy in the Church. In truth, it is aimed at all His
disciples. How do we know? This is the seventy being sent out and not
the Twelve. Sometimes, we folks that
have bishops like to think that events that involve the Twelve are more
directed at bishops. It’s not that simpe. Some of those lessons taught to the Twelve
were intended for you and me, though, one can argue that certain lessons are of
particular concerns to those who come to be bishops, episcopoi to use the real
Greek word, in the Church. I see some
lightbulbs going off. Yes, that is the
word from which we derive the name of our church. These instructions, though, are leveled at
the seventy. This is not the inner
circle of friends led by Peter, but the group next outside that.
Jesus, we
are told, sent the seventy ahead of Him in pairs to those towns and villages He
intended to visit. Think of this as an
ancient commercial or other form of public relations. The disciples, presumably, would do the
things commanded by the Lord. If they
did their job well, people in that town or village would want to meet their
Master. In this case, Jesus sends them
to cast out demons, heal the sick, and the like. Imagine the response to those miracles. If the disciples are able to accomplish the
miracles in His Name, how much more will those in the towns and villages want
to meet Him!
Jesus,
before they leave, tells them He is sending them like lambs into the midst of wolves. Is Jesus going to be or should the disciples
be shocked that this is hard work, full of failure? No.
Just as wolves are not known for their kindness to lambs, followers of
Jesus ought not expect the people in the world to be supportive or accepting. But He commands them to go, and they go.
Jesus gives
them a couple specific instructions that would have shocked those early
disciples. Take no purse? -- Has the Master lost His mind? How will we pay for anything? Greet no one on the road? -- How will we learn what to expect? Those of us who carry purses or wallets or
debit cards well understand the need for access to our money in the wider
world. Imagine being sent someplace
without that access—that’s what the disciples faced in this mission. Jesus is teaching them that God will provide
for their needs, be it food, lodging, or anything else. It was probably seen as a crazy instruction
by more than one disciple, but they had witnessed enough miracles to trust
Jesus and obey.
The
instruction about greeting folks on the road is probably a double warning. On the one hand, Jesus does not want the
perceptions of the disciples to be predetermined. He is teaching them to trust God. That means they need to begin to discern and
see things with God’s eyes, hear things with God’s ears, and trust their
circumcised hearts are seeking to glorify God in the world around them. The other issue, as a couple commentators in
my work noted this week, is that Jesus wants them focused on what’s in front of
them and not always looking back. Dwelling
on the past, and especially perceived past failure, would be a terrible
diversion. When folks traveling in one
direction came upon folks traveling in the opposite direction, there was a
nervous confrontation. There was always
a fear of brigands and the need to fight for one’s life and property. But, once the nervousness was set aside,
information could be shared. What are
things like on the road? Any brigands? How are things in the next town? If you and I met on the road walking between
Franklin and Nashville 2000 years ago, and I stayed in the red light district
of Nashville the night before, my description of Nashville might color your
expectations. Similarly, your
experiences and observations in Franklin would no doubt color mine. Part of Jesus’ rationale seems to be to keep
preconceptions, human preconceptions, at a minimum.
The other
part, as I said some commentators suggested, was to keep the disciples’ minds
focused on the task ahead. This was
another one of those “don’t look back while you are working at the plow” kind
of moments. Again, we understand this
logic. How many of you like to hear me
preach about the golden parish at which I served? How well would you like it if I held up that
parish time and time again to demonstrate your shortfalls? Probably as well as we clergy love hearing
stories about the golden rector, right?
You are chuckling, but it’s an ironic laughter. Most of us have seen and heard one or both
sides of that equation I just described, and we know the likely results. BTW—none of y’all need to repent of those
conversations with me. None of us were
alive during the truly golden age of our beloved Advent!
Imagine the
temptations to the disciples. Oh,
man, at that last town, they knew how to cook goat! Let me tell you about that town two towns up
the road, they had a Chardonnay that made you melt! Oh, that sounds like the people in the town I
just left. You get the idea.
Then we get
to the part upon which I wanted us to focus today. What does Jesus instruct His disciples to do
upon entering the house at each town or village? That’s right, bless them with peace. You and I are so steeped in that shalom
described here that we probably miss its counter-cultural significance. Week in and week our we remind ourselves that
because of His suffering, His, death, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His
promise to come again, that we should be possessors of peace that passes all
understanding. Practically speaking, should
we ever be despondent? No. If we truly believe in the promises made by
God to us at our baptisms and confirmations, then nothing in this world should
really dislodge that peace from us. Now,
we don’t go playing hopscotch on I-65 because we are immune to the evils of the
world. We experience the same evils
before and after our baptisms. The
difference is, naturally, our adoption.
We can face our death or the death of the loved one who believes in
Christ Jesus because we know that death is not the end but rather a changing of
life, right? That’s out of our prayer
books, folks. When we die or a loved one
die, we remind ourselves that life is not ended. God is God of the living, so He will raise
His sons and daughters to new life. He
promised!
And if He
can conquer something as hard as death, how much easier are the other
things? Provision? Everything is His, so He can give us our
daily bread. Disease? He can heal diseases or give us strength to
bear them to His glory? Broken
relationships? Again, the relationship
of the Trinity sets the example, and we as Christians are commanded to strive
for love and unity, right? That’s why
the world is stunned when couples like Abe and Carrie are brought to their
attention. Sixty-five years! Didn’t he leave the toilet seat up a
lot? Didn’t she nag you a lot? And both can laugh and say that is not the
only thing he did or she did that drove me nuts. Yet here they are. Still together. Still committed to one another, serving for
us and the world around us as a visible example of the intimate relationship to
which God calls all of us and the wider world!
Because of
God’s demonstrated ability to conquer and redeem death, we know with confidence
He has the power to conquer and redeem all things in our life. That knowledge, that faith, should give us
peace that the world does not have nor understands. And Jesus commands His disciples to share
that peace with the world! What is the
cost? Nothing. First of all, it is God’s peace that passes
all understanding, right? It’s not
Brian’s peace or John’s peace or Anne’s peace or your peace. It’s God’s peace. We are giving away freely that which He
freely gives to us. We are pass through
accounts, of sorts.
Is Jesus
naïve enough to think everyone will accept that peace? Of course not. If the peace is accepted, it will remain with
those in the house. If it is rejected,
it will return to the disciple. There
is, to use modern accounting terms, no loss in this transaction!
Brothers
and sisters, can you imagine you have anything better to offer to the world
right now? We live in a world that
desperately needs peace. Who are we
kidding, we live in a church that desperately needs peace. My social media was filled with examples of
both these last couple weeks, as I am sure was yours. My favorite was a colleague who is gay doing
marriage counseling for a gay couple seeking to be married in his parish. He shared they had that nervousness that we
usually associate in pre-marital counseling with pre-marital sex. Right, when the kids come in, that’s the
uncomfortable elephant in the room. Mean
priests like me make them live in agony for as long as possible, to really help
them understand the consequence of their sin.
Wait, I have not done any counseling for any of you, why are you all
laughing? I gather you went through
pre-marital counseling with someone like me, too? Nice priests like to address the elephant or
sin right off the bat so that everyone relaxes.
My colleague is more like me. As
they got to the end of their first session, the couple still had that nervous
energy vibe thing going. So the priest
asked knowingly if there was anything else they wanted to discuss or get off
their conscience – he could not help them if things remained unspoken or
unaddressed. They looked knowingly at
each other and at him a couple times. He
knew what was coming. Finally, one of
them blurted out they were sorry, but they wanted to know if they could have
Chick-fil-A do finger foods for the reception in the parish hall after the
service. Since he was gay, they knew he
would frown upon them eating at Chick-fil-A, let alone asking him permission to
use them for a reception after the service!
That’s why they were so nervous!
My
colleague was stunned. The nervous
energy was not about sex but about chicken nuggets and little biscuits and
lemonade and iced tea! He shared later
with us that he wonders whether God really can make chicken and lemonade and
Arnold Palmer’s better than Chick-fil-A—we had a fun debate about that. But he wondered how he and they had come to
that point where this was an uncomfortable discussion between them. The food was great. The service is always friendly and
impeccable. As a gay man, he had
experienced all kinds of bad and rude service at all kinds of places of
business in his life, yet never once had he ever experienced anything negative
at Chick-fil-A. And yet they were part
of a community, and supporters of that community, that called for a boycott in
such strong language that other members of that community felt guilty about
using them at an important event in their life.
And the two men in question were afraid to ask him because they knew
he’d be required to blow up at them for wanting to use that business.
Another
example of the discord and darkness circling social media was a meme that
quoted somebody about the Germans prior to the holocaust. Some of you have no doubt seen it, but it
says that 1/3 of Americans are like Nazi’s and support the extermination of
various ethnic groups, 1/3 are actively fighting their efforts to kill other
human beings, and 1/3 of Americans are simply complicit in their silence. A bishop in our church, not ever a bishop of
mine so please do not write †John or †Alan or even †Mark, shared that meme on
his page. We have been talking mostly
about disciples’ ministry today, but part of the bishops’ ministry, the
Apostolic ministry, is reconciliation.
And a bishop posted that on his page.
Look, I
take it that the polls are fairly accurate when describing the political makeup
of Americans. 1/3 of us are Republicans,
1/3 of us are Democrats, and 1/3 of us are where the national elections are won
or lost. Certainly, my work in the
Episcopal church anecdotally supports that view. At Advent, we have folks who voted for Trump
and folks who voted for other candidates.
I don’t mind y’all arguing over whether each other’s votes were good,
wasted, or whatever. But do Democrats
that attend Advent really believe our staunchest Republicans in this parish are
hoping people are exterminated? Really? And yet a bishop, a man who was consecrated
to serve in Apostolic succession in the ministry of reconciliation, wrote off
1/3 of his flock as Nazi’s on social media.
And we are not really discussing the hard issues that divide the world,
are we?
If we in
the Church can’t talk fast food or voting, how can we ever expect the world to
know how, let alone accomplish, serious dialogue and discernment on those easy
social issues like healthcare? Like
abortion? Like immigration and border
protection and whether we reward people with citizenship? Or what should our government do, if
anything, about the nuclear aspirations of Iraq or North Korea? Or the wisdom or stupidity of trade wars with
China? I’ve rattled off just a couple
divisive issues. You may want to add
things like solving our traffic problem or affordable housing problem in
Nashville? Maybe you want to discuss
whether reparations for the descendants of slavery is appropriate? Maybe you want to discuss the appropriateness
of for-profit prisons. Maybe you think
our system of education is broken and in need of repair or overhaul? Maybe for you it’s the appropriateness of
Civil War monuments in the world around us.
Our list could go on and on and on.
There are lots of fights out there that can divide us, separate us,
overcome us, if we allow the priority of God, if we treat them as idols rather
systems of a sinful world that need to be solved to God’s honor and glory.
I suspect
on most moral issues, we have much more agreement among ourselves at Advent
than we do on political issues. All of
us are fairly-well educated. Most of us
can read. Most of us can
understand. But political issues are
often related to moral issues. Democrats
are not “bleeding heart liberals” when they decry the cramped conditions in
which children are kept on the border.
Those facilities were built in a different age for a much smaller number
of potential border crossers, who were usually men. But neither are Republicans necessarily
hard-hearted for wanting us to figure out a way to determine whether those
children belong to those adults. We’ve
already busted one ring whose survivors claimed they were forced to call the
slavers uncles or aunts or mom or dad to get through the border. And that’s just a tiny sliver of the
discussion to be had on this easy little issue, right? Tiny!
We’ve not even begun to discuss the desperation of those trying to cross
despite our politicization of their plight nor the impact all this has on our
agents and guards and social service workers who work in that morass day in and
day out or our own culpability in the destabilization of their governments and
economies (or the stabilization of despots or politicians who say the right
things publicly about us as they rob their country and citizens blind and kill
all opposition)! Let’s not forget, our
Lord was political in word and action.
So we should be a people who represents Him and His teaching on those
issues in the public sphere, boldly and with humility. What He teaches is for our own good, all of
humanity’s own good. The world needs His
light, though it knows Him not. The
world needs His wisdom, though it may well reject Him in the end. And it is our job as His sons and daughters,
as His ambassadors in this land, to share His light, His wisdom, His teaching
with those around us. Perhaps the best
and easiest way for us to do just that is to be bestowers of peace, to
recognize that the “other” has experiences that inform their position, and that
maybe, maybe some of their observations are valid or useful in fixing whatever is
broken in whatever system we are discussing with them.
It all
sounds pollyannish, does it not? Yet,
ask yourself this question, with whom was Jesus not willing to engage
peacefully? With whom was He not
concerned about saving? What person in
Scripture was beyond His willingness to forgive and transform? What person was He excited about
condemning? We would do well to follow
His lead in that behavior.
In the end,
of course, I recognize that being peacemakers means we will be trampled,
ridiculed, humiliated, and maybe even killed.
So did Jesus. We are called to
pattern our lives after His, becoming in a sense, incarnations, with a little
“I” of His grace, His truth, His love, and even His peace. Like Himself, though, He knew we would be
rejected. What is His warning to those
disciples about rejection in this passage?
As sons and daughters, as ambassadors, it is not our message that is
being rejected, it is not our peace being mocked, it is not our gospel being
refused. Rather, it is all His. If we are representing Him winsomely, if we
are those peacemakers and meek and poor and others described in His great
sermon, if we are going about the work He gives us in truth and love and grace
and mercy and all those others adjectives He demands of us, folks are really
listening to Him and to the One who sent Him.
Jesus reminds each of His disciples in this passage that if their
message is received, it is not their message but the message of the Son and of
Father. And if that message is rejected,
ultimately it is not us being rejected, but the Son who sent us and the Father
who sent Him.
As
disciples of Christ it would be easy to be distracted by the results. Too much failure might tempt us to think we
are worthless failures, but Jesus wants us to remember always that each of us
was worth redeeming in His eyes and His work!
Similarly, too much success might puff us up and make us think that our
successes elevate us in the standing of God when compared to other human
beings. Our focus, He reminds us at the
end, is that we should always be rejoicing in the ultimate source of that peace
that passes all understanding, that we are redeemed by Jesus Christ, empowered
by the Holy Spirit, and sent by God to draw others into His saving embrace and
to participate in that wonderful, mystical relationship of the Trinity for all
eternity. These aren’t just pollyannish
words given us by some cool partier/hippie guy in the ANE. These are the words of life, eternal
life. We would do well to live them,
that others might hear and come to know Him and share in that same peace!
In Christ’s peace,
Brian†
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