"Living Beyond Fear"
Matthew 10:26-39
“Not peace, but
a sword.”
A lot of us
resist this saying of Jesus. We may find
ourselves wondering, “How did this ever get into the Bible?” And yet here it
is, in the Bible. So, what do we do
with it?
To a lot of
us, it sounds so wrong. But deep down,
we know it’s true. When you’re called to
speak your truth, to stand up for what you believe, it may not be received
well.
Peace can
be hard to come by when the truth gets told. The way Karoline Lewis puts it,
“the Kingdom of Heaven is not a tranquil or quiet existence free from
disturbance and discord. Rather, the
Kingdom of Heaven disrupts. The Kingdom of Heaven is unsettling. The Kingdom of
Heaven up-ends especially the reigns that feign peace. The Kingdom of Heaven
calls into question the rulers and systems that promise peace, but in doing so
wield a sword of terror and weapons of forced allegiance, armed with what they
think is power. The Kingdom of Heaven comes with the demands on which true
peace insists-- and never lets go of the kind of peace God has in mind.”[1]
Jesus has commissioned his twelve
disciples and is about to send them out on a mission of their own. As part of
what seems almost like a pre-game “pep talk,” we hear Jesus leveling with the
disciples about some of the challenges they will face, challenges that could
include rejection and slander and persecution and perhaps even death.
Jesus names the suffering the
disciples might face and its causes, and describes some worst-case scenarios, and
weaves them together with statements of reassurance and repeated calls to
resist fear. The disciples are called to
proclaim the gospel “in the light and from the housetops.”
“Have no fear,” Jesus says.
Did you notice how many times Jesus
says that in today’s passage? Three times. “Have no fear.” “Do not fear.” “Don’t be afraid.”
Jesus recognizes that fear can cause
the failure of discipleship. His first
disciples leave the security of their homes and families to follow him, as they
proclaim the coming of God’s reign. When
disciples faithfully proclaim and practice the gospel, the time will come when
they will come into conflict with the powers of this world.
Jesus reassures the disciples that
God is not like the powers of this world.
God knows and cares even for the sparrows that are sold “two for a
penny.” God knows even the hairs on our
heads better than we do. The threat of violence and death are real concerns for
the early disciples, but they’re no longer the determining force in their
lives, for the one who has ultimate power over our whole being exercises that
power with mercy and love.
These sayings of Jesus encourage
disciples to remain firm in their commitment to Jesus and his mission, even
when that mission generates inevitable conflicts, even within their families. Even though Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the
Mount that peacemakers are blessed, he says here in these discipleship
teachings that his mission does not bring peace, but a sword.
Jesus’ own ministry demonstrates
that the very act of peacemaking can generate conflict and violence. God’s peace requires justice and
righteousness. God’s peace demands that every person is valued and cared for.
To “take up the cross” means disciples
align their mission and fate with that of Jesus, which could bring humiliation,
suffering, shame, opposition, and even death.
The call to discipleship also makes claims upon our identity and
allegiance, even to parents or children.
When he hear Jesus calling us to
take up the cross, we join Jesus in his identification with marginalized people
or rebels who were subject to Roman crucifixion because they did not align
themselves with or submit themselves to the authority of the Empire. Discipleship is costly.
In our time
and place, most of us don’t live under the threat of death or dangerous
situations. But following Jesus can mean
involve conflict. Fear of conflict may be one of the most
debilitating of all fears.
This difficult passage gets to the
heart of one of the most paralyzing characteristics of many faith communities—both
congregations and denominations. We can
be so afraid of conflict -- within our immediate families… our congregations… or the larger family of faith -- that our
witness is muted. Fear of conflict may
keep us from acting on our values and convictions. When we’re afraid of “upsetting the apple
cart,” we get stuck and are unable to move forward.
In the early church, some disciples
were rejected by their family and friends because of their faith. But today, we may be held hostage by those
who threaten conflict when things don’t go their way. Or we may be so conflict-avoidant that we
just don’t want to make certain people unhappy with us.
In some ways, it feels like more
than three years since we hosted the General Assembly in Detroit, but that’s
how long it’s been. I remember that it
was a fearful time for many people. The Presbyterian
Church and other denominations had been struggling with issues related to human
sexuality for decades. Over that time,
people have been coming to understand sexual orientation and identity very
differently, and changes had been occurring in society and in the church,
albeit more slowly.
In the Presbyterian church, we do things
“decently and in order.” So, over the
years, a series of committees studied the issues, including all the research
and the advice from various church agencies. They listened to the testimonies
of various people, including biblical and theological experts and a variety of
other people who testify for and against the overture. They debate it in the committee and pray for
God’s guidance. They make a
recommendation to the whole Assembly, and the Assembly debates it in the
plenary session.
During the plenary session in which
the Assembly considered the committee’s recommendations on Civil Unions and
Marriage, there were people who came to the microphone and talked about how God
is calling us to do something new in response to new understandings of human
sexuality and what our Christian faith is calling us to do. Some people spoke for holding fast to
traditional understandings and values.
And some people spoke of their fears, mostly of fears that some
congregations will leave the denomination in protest. Change in general can be scary. And we fear
alienating people we care about or dividing the community. No matter what the decision was, some people
were going to rejoice, and some were going to grieve over the decision, and we
all knew that.
The 2014, General Assembly took two
significant actions on same-sex marriage and an even more controversial action
to divest from corporations that support or profit from the Israel’s occupation
of Palestine. These were emotionally
charged, fearful debates, as was the debate over ordination of LGBT persons a
few years ago.
[To
put this into historical perspective: the Presbyterian Church split over
slavery and it wasn't until the 1980's that we reunited. Older Presbyterians who were around for
the debate over the ordination of women have told me that conflict was every bit as divisive,
emotionally charged, and fearful as that over LGBT ordination.]
Following General Assembly, a few
congregations did leave the
denomination, and some who decided to remain aren’t completely in agreement
with the decisions. But we keep working and worshipping and praying and doing
mission together. We are united at the Lord’s Table, in mission, and in our
commitment to follow Jesus. There is diversity in our unity.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus invites
us to remember that there are worse things than conflict. Indeed, the call to follow Christ and take up
his cross will have costs, including conflict.
Some
of you have heard Jim and Marilyn Marble talk about their work with the
Koinonia Community, which was founded by Clarence Jordan. Jordan was an
agriculture major at the University of Georgia and a Master of Divinity
graduate of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he also earned a
PhD in New Testament. He founded the
racially integrated Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia in 1942. You may be familiar with Jordan through his Cotton Patch translations of the New
Testament or because the Habitat for Humanity movement originated from the
Koinonia Farm.
When the Koinonia community tried
selling peanuts from a roadside stand the Ku Klux Klan dynamited the
stand. Remember, this was in the
1940’s, in Georgia. Stubborn like most
saints for justice, Jordan put up another stand. It got blown up too. Finally, Koinonia Farm resorted to mail-order
ads: "Help us ship the nuts out of Georgia."1 To this day, Koinonia Farm has a mail
order business, selling peanuts, pecans, fair trade candy, and baked goods. I
buy some of my Christmas gifts from them.
Whether it’s shipping the nuts out
of Georgia or bringing Palestinian crafts to the United States to sell to help
people living under occupation feed their families through Pal Craft Aid or
speaking and acting for God’s kingdom of justice and righteousness, we are
called to live beyond our fears to follow Jesus.
We can be inspired by heroes of the
faith, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Archbishop Oscar Romero or the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, whose lives and Christian witness ended in violent deaths. We
can give thanks for Congressman John Lewis and others who as young men and
women put their lives on the line to protest racial injustice.
We can be inspired by the story of
Fannie Lou Hamer, the Mississippi voting rights activist was beaten so badly in
jail that she couldn’t lie down, yet she led a jailhouse choir in singing a
freedom song we’ve heard Kevin Dewey’s Henry Ford College Chorus sing: “Paul and Silas, was bound in jail--let my
people go.”
The work isn’t done yet. Every week
there is heartbreaking news in our nation and the world-- news that must break
God’s heart. This is not a time for a
middle-of-the-road, lukewarm, comfortable Christianity.
So, go out in the light with the
good news of God’s love. Shout it from
the housetops. Don’t cling to this life,
but give your life for the sake of Christ.
“Have no
fear, says Jesus. Even the hairs of
your head are counted. So, have no
fear. You are of more value than many
sparrows. God loves us. Don’t be afraid.
Amen.
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
June 25, 2017
[1]
Karoline Lewis, “Not Peace, But a Sword,” at Working Preacher. https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?m=4377&post=4927
