10 Pentecost, Proper 15
14 Aug 2022
Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now.
That is how Eugene Petersen ended this passage in The Message.
I am not sure I want to be called a fraud, or a hypocrite, or some other word. Maybe Jesus is tired at this point; he has been preaching and teaching with only a modest degree of success and now he is headed to Jerusalem to face certain death. He may be disillusioned and disappointed; people still don’t get what he is saying. Pull out the big guns; add the fear factor. Our lives are uncertain as it is, why not add fuel to the fire? Are we just now seeing the real Jesus; the prior Jesus was a Kumbaya sort of guy; we could like him and not feel unease. What he preached, while not easy, did not involve tearing households apart. Now he has ratcheted up the rhetoric and asked for a bigger down payment. Why? I am not ready for this. Could Jesus be too tired to carry on?
This is the middle of summer for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and it has been exceptionally hot and dry, with an unprecedented number of wildfires. It is an election year, as contentious as ever. I bet most folks wish the elections were coming up sooner rather than later. We are tired, just like Jesus, and we may well see our own hopes vanished as many followers felt about the message they thought Jesus was preaching.
This time of year I want clarity, consistency, and simplicity. Tell me in plain and easy to follow language what it is I am supposed to do. And don’t tell me I will be turned against my friends and family. Christianity is supposed to bring us together.
OK, that was an overstatement. Christianity has, with the possible exception of the first few years or decades or other very rare exceptions, never brought us together. Jesus knows what people are like and he knows that not everyone will get it; they will not hear the Message with their hearts and will, instead, sift it through their intellect and pick out what suits them. The reality is there are hundreds of variations and permutations of our faith, some based on local needs and practices, but far too many based on the premise that a particular denomination or sect holds the truth and no one else does. This sort of division and false narrative is, however, not the division Jesus was talking about. He was, in truth, preaching exactly the message he had been preaching since he unrolled the scroll of Isaiah in his home synagogue.
Division and struggle are in our nature. Do we not often struggle internally between two choices that are neither one evil or wrong, yet are mutually incompatible? Mary struggled with the burden of being an unwed mother in a society where it was decidedly not a good position, or she could choose to accept what the angel had asked of her. Think of the most difficult decision you have had to make; if it was clearly one of wrong vs right, good vs evil I suspect the deciding would not have been difficult. The hard ones are things like a dream job but in a location far from friends and family.
Jesus is telling his friends that their hearts may be pierced or broken in the name of Love. What he has been asking of them all along is to choose the Way of Love. Now to my ears that sounds like a “no brainer” decision, but the way of love that he was teaching was not, as I said earlier, everyone sitting around singing Kumbaya. It was following the Prince of Peace instead of the Pax Romana. It was not an easy choice! The Prince of Peace could get you killed. He knew at this point it would get him killed. For generations it seems those that chose the hard road, the Way, would be the most likely to be killed in the name of some greater good.
There really is no inconsistency in what Jesus has been preaching all along. The inconsistencies are in what we say and do and how we often practice our faith.
This passage has been used to justify war and call it holy; we are killing people because they do not believe in Jesus. It has been used to make denominationalism seem credible; our way is the one Jesus approved of. In light of what you understand Jesus to be teaching does that square with your beliefs?
We can seem to be unified if we are complacent and docile; we can use division to ignore and shut out.
Jesus talks about his baptism with fire. We know the end of the story, or do we? Does this baptism with fire mean his crucifixion and resurrection so that we who believe might be “saved”, whatever that means? Or is his baptism with fire about hope and renewal for the entire world. Fire can purify; fire in the prairies of this very state, this very place where we now sit, led to new life.
For all that is not right with the Roman Catholic church, their positions on social justice are, I believe, exactly what Jesus was saying. This one they have right. Those seven principles are:
1 Every person has worth and dignity and the right to live.
2 We are all part of a whole greater than ourselves: family, community, and the world, and everyone deserves a share in society
3 We care all called to care for creation
4 God has a preference for the poor and so should we. Everyone deserves the basics of live and a safe place to live
5 Work is part of God’s plan and jobs should be safe and workers paid good wages.
6 We are all part of one human family and so we are all brothers and sisters to one another, regardless of where we are or who we are.
7 We all have rights for ourselves and responsibilities to others.
The exact wording is my own, but I think it sets out the vision Jesus preached and his realization that it would be difficult for many to accept and follow those teachings. I have been a Christian for my entire life, and I can tell you I still fall very, very short of the goal.
In the Episcopal Church we promote The Way of Love: Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest.
Turn: Pause, listen, and learn to follow Jesus.
Learn: Reflect on scripture each day, Jesus’ life and teachings
Pray: Dwell intentionally with God each day.
Worship: Gather in Community weekly to thank, praise, and dwell with God
Bless: Share faith and unselfishly give and serve
Go: Cross boundaries, listen deeply and live like Jesus
Rest: Receive the gift of God’s grace, peace, and restoration.
It is our way of putting into motion the reality of following Jesus.
I suggest that when one takes social justice teachings and combines it with the Way of Love, one has everything that you need to be a follower of Jesus. Call it a toolkit or call it The Way or call it both. I say it is exactly what Jesus is teaching us to do and to be.
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