Matthew 10:24-39 Pentecost 6
Matt 10:24-39
‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! ‘So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’
I speak to you in the name of him who says of himself that he brings not peace, but a sword, even Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
This morning’s readings from Genesis and Matthew have a very dark mood to them. In the first reading the Matriarch Sarah insists that her rival Hagar be ousted from Abraham’s camp and that she take her son with her. She is banished to the desert with nothing more than a loaf of bread and a skin of water to sustain herself and her son.
And then, even more ominously in the Gospel reading, Jesus warns, ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.’
This does not sound like good news to me. I am not completely sure of what we are to make of this teaching, so let’s keep it on a back burner for a while and look at the context of this week.
It began well enough with Tiger Woods winning the US Open in double overtime while using a 9 iron as a crutch, protecting a broken leg. There has been the usual flow of news from Iraq and Afghanistan. The presidential campaign is clearly gearing up.
For me personally, it has been a wonderful week. My younger brother flew in from Vancouver and my older brother came down from Philadelphia. The three of us have not had several days together, especially with no crowds around, for many years. It was a gracious time to relearn our love for one another.
The chances are that for most of us, the week had a familiar rhythm. Those who have work got up and went to their jobs on Monday and probably had the same job on Friday. Some did not, victims of a faltering economy. Children, the lucky ones, might be eagerly looking forward to summer camp. Families were talking about vacations. Everyone wonders about the price of gasoline. Some pursued political interests. Most church doors were locked throughout the week, but they are now open on Sunday for a few bright hours of worship and affectionate conversation.
In many lands, all days were the same as men, women, and children, bearing lethal weapons, some wearing the uniforms of state, others carrying nothing but the will to kill each other did so, often in the name of religion.
Also this week, the State of California has seen hundreds of visitors, couples of men and couples of women taking the opportunity to celebrate their relationships as marriages under the new California law. As soon as the law was enacted, a counter-force initiated a move for a state constitutional amendment forbidding such marriages.
And speaking of counter-forces, this weekend, about 1,000 splinter group Anglicans, mostly from Africa and the Pacific Rim, some from the US, all opposed to what they consider liberal leadership within the Anglican Communion, will gather in Jerusalem for an eight-day meeting that likely will solidify the deep alienations, particularly over homosexuality, that have divided the church. The Bishop of Jerusalem, Zuhail Dahwani, pleaded with the organizers of the conference not to use his diocese that way. They ignored his plea.
In the mean time, about 800 bishops from around the world, including our own Bishop Klusmeyer, are packing their bags and reading white papers, getting ready to travel to England for The Lambeth Conference to be held in Canterbury next month.
The Lambeth Conference is a gathering of Anglican bishops from throughout the world, invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury every ten years, to meet for discussion and for the development of opportunities to work together for the furtherance of God’s rule on earth. It is a surprise to many Episcopalians to learn that The Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, is the third largest Christian group in the world, having 77,000,000 members in over 160 countries.
In 1998 Barbara and I had the huge privilege of being a part of the last Lambeth. Then, we spent most of our time in small group bible study and in hearing reports on world issues like hunger and disease and Third World debt. It was not all sweetness and light, but bonds of affection were made and strengthened. This year the conversations will be dominated by matters of sexuality.
The two gatherings - the splinter group in Jerusalem and the main group in Canterbury, mostly of bishops, will talk about little but sexuality. They will talk as if warfare, environmental destruction, tribal hatreds, inequalities and repression among people, the fragility of hope, joblessness - as if God cared nothing about such things and is now concerned only with who makes love with whom.
In the Gospels, Jesus devotes two thirds of his teaching to wealth and power and the distribution of resources. He does challenge the standard interpretations of scripture of his day. He says not a word about sexuality.
And now, in Jerusalem and soon in Canterbury, Anglican bishops will seem to have probed the mind of God and come up with the perfect formulation of truth on matters of sexuality and the authority of scripture. With little sense of irony, they will promulgate Christian teachings in areas that Jesus never trod. As much as prayers for grace and humility will be offered, I fear that formal statements from each of those conferences will serve more to divide than to reconcile.
Perhaps all of this is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ... And one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”
That’s the Gospel truth that is always simmering on some back burner of our lives, so let’s stir that pot for a few minutes. The discernment of truth is not easy. It usually takes several different points of view to get close to the kind of truth that enables people to live lives with integrity and generosity. We too often settle for some partisan prejudice that masquerades as truth, but usually makes someone else a victim. Such is not truth as God would have it. Yet lynchings happened in the light of a burning cross and roadside bombs are detonated in the name of Allah. It is only a short few years since Protestants and Catholics were doing such things to each other in Ireland. Ethnic and gender bias are hardly dead in our own culture and time. God must weep at such mockery of everything that the Good News of Jesus Christ stands for.
“Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” Jesus said. “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
If we find the value of our lives in the pious and often biased opinions we hold, then our lives will crumble to dust, Jesus seems to be saying. The invitation here is to take up some worthy challenge that helps another. To bear another’s cross. The call is to let go of some prejudice that you hold but which makes somebody else a little less than human. The collateral promise in this is that in giving up something that seemed so dear, you in fact lose nothing at all. In truth, you gain a larger circle of friends and a more loving outlook on life, and a deeper peace than mere prejudice can ever give you.
I pray that people on both sides of the conversations in Jerusalem and Canterbury will discern truths deeper than their already held convictions. And I pray further that they all will remember that those with whom the strife is sparked are also beloved friends of Jesus.
As we just sang in Hymn #661, “The peace of God, it is no peace, but stride closed in the sod. Yet let us pray for but one thing - the marvelous peace of God.” Amen.
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