Grace, peace, and
mercy are yours from the Triune God. Amen.
The Gospel
reading today could be summed up in a single sentence so eloquently said by
Dietrich Bonheoffer, “When the Lord bids you to come, he bids you to come and die.”
Or,
to put it another way, “Dear disciples, the shit is about to hit the fan. You
have been warned. Love JC”
I
have to admit that over the last few months, I have struggled with my faith. More
precisely, I have struggled with being openly faithful. I won’t get into it all
but let’s just say there have been some events that have taken place that have
shaken my understanding of what it means to be a priest, a member of the Anglican
church, a follower of Jesus.
Being
a disciple of Jesus isn’t easy. Being a vocal disciple is even harder.
Following Jesus should be something that unites us, but ever more discouragingly,
that isn’t the case. The truth is that the gospel of Jesus
can prove divisive, turning even family members against each other. Faith sometimes breaks families up,
dividing rather than uniting the home.
Jesus
understood this. He knew his message might divide homes and families, and that
includes church families, although Jesus wouldn’t have used those words. But he
also didn’t want his story to be kept a secret. Jesus wants his followers to be
vocal about their faith in him.
Throughout
chapter 10 of Matthew, we have been hearing and reading (because the lectionary
skips over a big chunk) about Jesus gathering his disciples, building them up
with speeches and pep talks, getting ready to send them out into the world to spread
the word of Jesus’ story.
In
today’s passages, we hear Jesus warn the disciples that they are being sent
into a perilous world, that they will face opposition and even
violence. There will be
divisions in their families. There will be “those who kill the body.” But the disciples must be
prepared to take up the cross. He expects them, despite opposition, to get the
job done.
You can imagine Jesus on the cusp of sending his twelve
naïve disciples when he pauses to equip them with a final spiritual gift: the
ability to persevere in the face of resistance. He doesn’t sugar-coat the
dangers of the mission; he gives it to them straight: “Some folks will welcome
the Good News, others won’t. They’ll resist the message and the change that
comes with it. And you’ll be the target of their resistance.”
Jesus’ coming among us will
not be viewed as an occasion for celebration by everyone. It is not a time for
party hats and gift bags. Not everyone will be glad to see Jesus or to have his
presence as the center point in their lives. His coming initially stokes
division. Peace? Not yet! Quite the contrary, it will be a time of heightened
tensions and disagreements when people will have to declare whether they are
for or against Jesus. These deep divisions and fissures will be felt most intently
in one’s own household. His very presence will be opposed by some, and cause
others to stumble, and this sometimes in the same family.
Being
a disciple of Jesus is never easy. A disciple of Jesus is one who first
listens closely to the teachings of Jesus and then decides on the appropriate
response. Jesus’ word is a
reminder that
along the way those who embrace the master will face
resistance and opposition.
We, who stand this side of Easter, know that the path that
Jesus took provoked not peace, but division. He may not have taken up the
sword, but the sword was put to him. He could have walked away. But he didn’t.
One of the powerful messages of the film The Last Temptation of Christ is that Jesus could
have walked away. The closing scenes of the film focus on Jesus’ vision of what
life would be like, if he climbed down from the cross, got married, and had a
family. That was the last temptation. It was the temptation, however, that
Jesus chose to turn aside. He stayed on the cross. He demonstrated that the
pathway of discipleship would be costly.
He
also reminds us that despite this, his story needs to be shared. That we
shouldn’t keep it tucked inside our selves like our own little secret gift.
Jesus wants us to be visible and vocal. Jesus sent his disciples then on a
mission to spread the gospel, and he sends us now today to do the same.
Matthew concludes his Gospel with Jesus’ Great Commission,
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” Following Christ demands
discipleship and
there is a cost to discipleship. Discipleship changes one’s
attachments at the most basic and profound level, even within our families, and
especially within ourselves. We all need “someone to love, something to do, and
something to look forward to.” Faith in Christ gives us all three. Jesus calls
every disciple to follow him, to “take up the cross” and find life
paradoxically by losing it in service to the Lord.
How has faith changed you?
I
have done, and continue to do, a whole lot of discerning over the last few
months. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? What does it mean to be a
visible and vocal disciple of Christ?
There
are so many forces in the world going against good, healing, hope, and justice.
When preaching the Gospel of Christ, there will be pushback. The gospel message
challenges the status quo, it challenges people’s comfort, and it challenges established
power. Jesus is leading the way to counter this. Jesus’ followers were
counter-cultural. By listening to his stories and following his lead, those
original followers tried to fight back against injustice, inequality, poverty,
Roman law, and on and on.
It
feels like we, as Christians, need to return to that counter-cultural movement.
We, as followers of Jesus Christ, need to fight back against injustice, inequality,
poverty, and on and on.
No more can the cross mean a passive acceptance
of the injustice and misery of this creation. Instead, the cross needs to be a sign of the realm
of God that is to come, a strength that can be known by those who are obedient
to the call of Jesus Christ in their lives. Those who live by the light of
faith challenge the evil powers of this world with the certainty of believers,
knowing that the way of God will prevail against every hurt and every
challenge.
Jesus
is leading the way. It’s our job to take up the cross and follow. Amen.
Thank you for this message.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite welcome.
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