EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 3 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on June 9, 2020. This was the 12th digital service we performed after our church was shuttered because of the COVID pandemic.
So, by a show of hands -- those of you at home maybe just in the comments section on our Facebook Live -- I see a few hands of our paper people that are up here, but just how many of you, like me, are weary?
There are hands that are raising here.
I imagine that some of you at home raised your hands, or maybe you're hitting those buttons on your phone, saying, "Yes! Me too!"
We as a community, and as a state, as a nation, and really as a globe, have had an unimaginable two weeks. Nothing we could have ever dreamed up, just a couple of months ago. And top of that, before the past two weeks, we had an unbelievable three months that we couldn't have dreamed up prior to March.
And so I'll be honest, as I approached this week's text, and I dug into it, this gospel really stressed me out. And it stressed me out for a couple of different reasons. I know that we look to our Bible for hope and to take away the anxiety and the stress and the unknowns, but there were two things that jumped out at me in the text this week.
The very first was the very strife in the text that Jesus talks about with his disciples of their time. Jesus is trying to send his 12 disciples out into that world as diplomats of Christ. You may recall that just prior to this we have Jesus' great sending, his commandment to the disciples that after he left that they were to love one another like themselves. They were to care for one another. And this is Jesus looking at his 12 disciples, and saying, "Now this is the time!"
But much like today, we need to take a look at that time in which they were living, and the first century for Christians was no pleasant picnic. This was a time where, essentially, the followers of Christ were turning on this age-old religion of their fathers, and saying, "Our savior is here!"
You look back at the text, and Jesus paints a pretty dark picture. We're talking about sons and fathers turning on each other, and that wouldn't have been unheard of as maybe a younger generation became Jesus followers and the older generations remained Orthodox Jews. It talks about fathers turning on their children, and children turning on their parents.
It talks about his followers being drug before the municipal courts and being flogged and dragged into the synagogues to be mocked.
And in the backdrop of all of this, Jesus is turning to his disciples and saying, "I need you to go out there."
The second thing about this text that I found so stressful is he's talking to us. ... In that moment, when his 12 disciples are gathered around him, we can just as well adorn our heads on their bodies. Because just as Jesus called his disciples into that very strife-filled world of the first century, saying, "Go out there and be that light!" Jesus is doing the same to us today!
And so as we deal with our anxiety and our fears and the infighting that we might see among families happening -- and I've seen it portrayed out on social media -- and I've heard about the stories and the fights, even the political rancor developing among family members even today -- Jesus is looking at us and saying, "I need you to go out there."
I don't know about you, but that sounds awfully daunting. I'm already tired. We've already established this: We're all weary. But we have to be very clear about this text and about what Jesus is talking to us about tonight. And Jesus is blatantly calling out his disciples in this text to get in the game. Even though the stakes are so absolutely high. Just as today as they were 2,000 years ago.
Jesus tells us in his gospel, "You know, people aren't going to listen to you." ... It says, "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to you, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town." ... And Faith Family, we're going to run into that as we take our faith and we go out there to be church. You know, not everybody is going to want to hear our message about unity and community and living together. And lifting up the marginalized, and clothing the naked, and taking care of the widows and the orphans. That's not always a popular message.
Jesus tells us that even further there are going to be someone who are just going to be outright hostile to our message. If we go back to the gospel again, it just tells us, "Whatever town or village you enter, find out if it is worthy and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy let your peace return to you."
I personalized that message this week as I struggled so mightily with all of what is going on. All of the argument that courses from one end of the political spectrum to the other. And we only have so much peace in each of us. And so we do have to determine where we can do some good and where simply to expend the energy just takes away from us. How much rhetorical fight do we have in us?
Jesus also tells us that we won't even know for sure who the wolves are ... and who the wolves aren't. I mean how scary is that! ... Jesus blatantly tells us that he's sending us out as sheep into the midst of wolves! ... Of course, with the advice to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. But to me that doesn't doesn't sound like a real joyful mission in a lot of cases.
We know that there are people out there posing in our own faith to say that they are Christians, but they aren't espousing the same gospel that we are. There are wolves out there, waiting in hiding for us to show our colors, and then to pounce on us as Christians. And to ridicule the message of light and love and caring that we bring into the world. That doesn't sound like a lot of fun either.
Jesus also tells us in this passage that there are going to be times where we get frustrated, and we just want to fight power with power. You want to get down in the mud and wrestle with those people who are slinging those awful words. You want to get down and debate about whose lives matter. And what Jesus tells us to do ... he tells us to stick to the gospel.
You'll notice that in Jesus' sermon ... in the first half of this gospel text tonight ... it talks about him curing the sick and all of the mission work that he did to work with those who were marginalized and who had none. You'll notice in our gospel text, it wasn't Jesus working with the power structures. Jesus was working with the people who were not served by the power structures. And there are plenty of those people in our world today. That isn't a political statement. That is just a statement of fact.
And so when you get into the gospel work of Jesus, and you take that light out into your community, whether it's to your neighbor's house or where you work or to family gatherings or to work gatherings, wherever it is that you are going, you may find that temptation to fight power with power ... because you just get so frustrated that people can't hear the gospel. That's not what Jesus is calling us to do in the least.
Such daunting work. ... But Jesus isn't done. He saves probably the most challenging statement for us until the end.
In his gospel, right before he closes the message, he reminds us ... "You!" -- and he's pointing his finger at each of us ... each of us as his disciples -- "And you, will be hated by all because of my name."
I don't know about all of you, but that seems like a lot to ask of us as Jesus' disciples. It seems very challenging to me. It stresses me out as I told you earlier about when I was digging into this text this week. I mean we can all relate right now as to how those disciples must have felt as Jesus was pointing his finger at them, and saying to them, "You are to go out into this world where the strife is so high, and the danger is that of your life."
Folks, we are being sent out into a very hostile world as well. ... By our Jesus. It wasn't just those 12 disciples that Jesus was talking to.
But maybe what was even the most daunting to me this week was when I read a commentary about this particularly text, and the writer reminds us in the commentary, that in being sent like Jesus we are being sent as Jesus. And I ask you to let that sink in for a minute. ... In being sent like Jesus, we are being sent as Jesus. Now if the weight of that doesn't rest on your shoulders for a bit you have a much stronger faith than I do.
But what we have to remember, and through all of my struggles with the text this week, this is what I came back to. And this, Faith Family, is what I hope that you focus on. What we have to remember is a couple of things. First, so just as we are Jesus' disciples, so were his apostles. They were mired in politics and religious battles in the first century that might even make ours pale in comparison. It was no easier being a Christian, a Jesus follower, in the days after his death, then it is for us to be Christians today. They didn't have any easier of a mission than we are called upon in these times. And so I think we are in good company.
Secondly, I would ask you to remember, just who the apostles were. We often think about those 12 followers of Jesus and all the good that they did. But go back and remember who these 12 were. Our text reminds us. Our text reminds us in this gospel. In fact, the very first disciple they name is Peter. And we all know Peter's story. Peter becomes the denier. We know that Judas Iscariot becomes the betrayer. ... There's tax collectors. And there's Thomas who doubts Jesus. And then there's a bunch of other simple folk who were fishermen, or other jobs.
In other words, that collection of 12 apostles, was not unlike you and I. They weren't super human. They weren't endowed with some super power from being around Jesus any more than us. They were simple people, called into a faith and then directed towards action. No different than us. Those of us who are sitting in this building tonight, and those of you who are listening live or those of you who will listen to this recording for the rest of the week. These disciples were no more equipped to go out into the world, to be as Jesus, any more so than us.
Finally, and the third thing I want to draw your attention to is Jesus promises us not to worry. He goes back, and if you look in our gospel, he tells us exactly that in the moment our God will be there. "When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. For what you are to say will be given you at that time. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."
Faith Family, I don't know about you, I often find myself in a moment with others when I'm trying to share that gospel, and there's that momentary panic where we want to share our heart-felt message about the gospel, but we might be just a little worried about how we are going to be received. It's not a popular stance in this world today, for us to be out there and preaching God's message. I'll be honest with you, every week that we kick off this live service, and I come hear to read that gospel, there's that knot here in my stomach that says, "God, send me the words." And some weeks, it's far easier than others.
So as the third promise that I want to leave you with tonight is: Remember what Jesus tells us in the gospel. Jesus tells that in that moment, when you are out there and when you are in that setting, and you have the butterflies in your stomach because you know that it is your Christianly duty to speak up, just open the mouth, and God's going to provide you those words. I think that's pretty comforting.
Faith Family ... I don't want to make light of all that is going on in the world. I don't want to make light of the tension you might feel in your life or the anxiety that you might feel or where you are in this world. I don't want to make light that there are divisions happening among families or friends or coworkers. In fact, this message, this call of Jesus' tonight, is really daunting. And for me personally, in this day and age, to stand up here week after week and preach this same message, it probably sounds a little redundant at time. ... It's more challenging to me, more so than ever as well.
So you and I are in the same boat tonight. But I'm heartened by the fact that it's that same very boat that 12 disciples of Christ were in 2,000 years ago. I know that at times you might feel just as confused as I as to what is appropriate, or how you go about stepping out in Christ, and I don't always have the easy answer. But I won't complicate it. ... What I share with you tonight is this: Take that step; shine that light; share the gospel; and God promises us in that moment he will use his words for you to be Christlike ... and to be as Christ. And it will be God who will be answering Jesus' call upon your behalf so that we, like the disciples, can go forth and make believers of all the nations.
And that is the Good News for this Sunday, the second Sunday of Pentecost, and for this Tuesday for our live audience as well. ... Amen.
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