Introspection: A Personal Challenge

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

A Personal Challenge

Therefore, don't be afraid of those people because nothing is hidden that won't be revealed, and nothing secret that won't be brought out into the open.  What I say to you in the darkness, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, announce from the rooftops.

Matthew 10:26-27 (CEB)

Say it like it is
Say it like you mean it
Words are strong enough to say you care
Say it like it is
Say it like you mean it
Words are strong enough to make you swear

From "Say" by Nemesea

If you've been following this blog for a while, then you probably know that I am a Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church.  In other words, I've been certified to fill in at churches in the denomination when their pastors are on vacation or are otherwise unable to be present.  Effectively, I am a "substitute preacher."  Due to various reasons, I haven't had very many opportunities to preach in the last few years.  Until last November, I had not preached in nearly a year and a half.  Recently a pastor who is a friend of mine asked me to fill in for her on two Sundays within the last few weeks.

When I write sermons, I typically follow the Revised Common Lectionary, a three-year cycle of assigned weekly Bible readings used my many churches.  A week's readings typically consist of a reading from one of the Gospels, another reading from the New Testament, a reading from the Psalms, and another reading from the Old Testament.¹  I usually base my sermons on the Gospel readings.  When I started preaching, I made it a practice to preach on readings from the Lectionary, because I wanted to know if I could preach on any given Sunday.  Sometimes, when I'm asked to preach, I find that I've already preached on one of the passages for the week or a similar passage, and I am able to revise a sermon I've delivered previously.

When I was asked to preach on the third Sunday in June, I found that I already had a sermon based on the Epistle reading for the week.  For some reason, I just didn't want to deliver that sermon again.  The previous three times I preached, I revised sermons I had delivered previously, and I think I just wanted to write something new.

It's also worth noting that the reason I had a sermon based on the Epistle reading for the week was that I previously did not want to preach on the Gospel reading.  In that particular passage, Jesus says a number of things that are challenging and even downright frightening.  For example, He seems to threaten His hearers with eternal damnation when He says, "Don't be afraid of those who kill the body but can't kill the soul.  Instead, be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell."²  Jesus seems to threaten His hearers yet again when He says, "Everyone who denies me before people, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."³  Finally, Jesus says, "Don't think that I've come to bring peace to the earth.  I haven't come to bring peace but a sword."⁴  This is a rather strange statement for the One who is called the Prince of Peace to make.

I decided to take a second look at that dreadful passage, and, when I read it within its context, I gained a new appreciation for it.  The passage is part of a larger section of the Gospel of Matthew that is sometimes called the Mission Discourse.⁵  In it, Jesus commissions the Disciples to go out and the same things He has been doing in His ministry, and He warns them that they will face the same hostility He has started to face.⁶  When Jesus makes His frightening and hopefully hyperbolic statements, He is acknowledging the often disruptive nature of His work and challenging the Disciples to be courageous in the face of hostility.

For about three weeks, the Mission Discourse and the sermon I was writing about it occupied my thoughts.  Because I've been confronted with my own cowardice more than once this year, the Gospel passage I once found scary became a personal challenge.  I felt that, like the Disciples, I too was being challenged to be courageous.

As I wrote my sermon bit by bit, I found myself venturing into subject matter that I thought would be controversial at the churches where I would be preaching.  I touched on things that I consider problematic about Christianity in America.  I wondered how my sermon would be received.  I expected that I would be stepping on people's toes, so to speak.  I told some members of my Sunday school class that I thought the sermon I was preparing was "a bit much" and joked that I would probably be burned at the stake for it.

As people who call ourselves disciples of Jesus, we must consider honestly what we are doing.  Are we trying to liberate people, as Jesus did when He freed people from their demons and diseases, or are we trying to keep people in their places?  Are we offering people hope, or are we misusing Jesus' name to instill fear and shame into people?  Are we heralding the heavenly Kingdom that Jesus announced, or are we serving some earthly kingdom instead?  Jesus once used these words from the Book of Isaiah to describe what He was doing: "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor..."  Do the poor, the oppressed, the disadvantaged, and other such "lost sheep" hear good news from us, or, in their eyes, have we joined the "wolves" who prey upon them?

Excerpted from my sermon "Sheep Among Wolves"

I thought I was acting courageously by preaching a potentially controversial sermon about a Bible passage I found challenging.  If anyone at either of the two churches where I preached that morning found anything I said offensive, they didn't tell me.  All of the feedback I received was positive.  Maybe the people to whom I preached weren't listening.  Maybe they just heard what they wanted to hear.  Maybe I used such vague language nobody really understood what I was trying to say.  Maybe I didn't actually say anything controversial at all.

At least I can say that I tried to be courageous, I guess.  If nothing else, I can hope that God heard and answered the prayer I prayed before I started preaching that Sunday, that each of us who were present would hear whatever God wanted us to hear.


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: "Revised Common Lectionary"
2. Matthew 10:28 (CEB)
3. Matthew 10:33 (CEB)
4. Matthew 10:34 (CEB)
5. Wikipedia: "Matthew 10"
6. Matthew 10:1-25

The photograph featured in this introspection has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Introspection: Another Cowardly Disciple

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Another Cowardly Disciple

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.  All who want to save their lives will lose them.  But all who lose their lives because of me will find them."

Matthew 16:24-25 (CEB)

Oh my soul, Oh my Savior
Peter denied You three times
I have denied You more

From "What Have We Done?" by Kings Kaleidoscope

For the last couple of years, during Holy Week, I read about Jesus' fateful "last week" in Jerusalem.  From Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday, I read about Jesus' triumphal entry into the city, clash the religious institution, Last Supper with the Disciples, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection from one of the Gospels.  Last year, when I read about these events from the Gospel of Luke, I kept the politics of the time and region in mind.  This year, when I read about these events from the Gospel of Matthew, I read through a more religious lens.

I read about the actions of Jesus in Jerusalem, particularly His cleansing the temple and His theologically battling with the religious leaders, as an assault on the religious establishment of His day.

On the day after Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the joyous shouts of the people who traveled with Him, He barged into the temple, turned over the tables of the people exchanging currency, and turned over the chairs of the people selling animals for sacrifice.  He said, "It's written, My house will be called a house of prayer.  But you've made it a hideout for crooks."¹  Jesus' actions were essentially a protest against the corruption of the religious institution.  By comparing the temple to a "hideout for crooks," Jesus was saying that the religious leaders were not promoting scriptural justice but were instead harboring injustice.²

The next morning, Jesus was hungry.  He found a fig tree, but, when He looked for figs, He found nothing but leaves.  He cursed the fig tree, and it immediately withered, to the amazement of His disciples.³  That fig tree was symbolic of the religious institution of Jesus' day.⁴  In Jesus' eyes, both were outwardly beautiful but essentially fruitless.

Later that day, the religious leaders confronted Jesus over the stunt He pulled in the temple, asking Him where He received the authority to do what He did.  Jesus didn't answer their question.  Instead, He responded with a series of parables that suggested that the religious leaders were hypocritical, derelict in their duty, and utterly disinterested in what God was doing.  The religious leaders struck back by asking Jesus a series of loaded questions, hoping to trap Him with His words, but He evaded their traps with His brilliant answers.  Finally, in front of His followers, He launched into a screed about the hypocrisy of the religious leaders.⁵

Sometimes, when we read the biblical story, the biblical story reads us back.  Naturally, I read about Jesus' actions as an attack on the religious system of His day, because I have problems with the religious system of my day.  In my eyes, much of American Christianity is rotten to the core.  So many Christians in America seem to care more about supporting certain political interests and less about actually carrying on the work of Christ.  The Gospel story, which is meant to be liberating and life-giving, is twisted and weaponized against people.  All that said, I don't do very much to combat the corruption of Christianity in America.  I either address such matters on this blog so vaguely that nobody really knows what I mean or subconsciously keep my readership small so that I don't have to face pushback.

Later that week in Jerusalem, Jesus, knowing that He would soon be arrested, tried, and crucified, went to a place called Gethsemane to pray.  He prayed, "My Father, if it's possible, take this cup of suffering away from me.  However - not what I want but what you want."⁶  Jesus didn't want to face the suffering that awaited Him, but He wanted to do God's will.  On Maundy Thursday, as I reflected on this prayer, the thought occurred to me that Jesus would not have to face this "cup of suffering" if He had not rocked the proverbial boat.  Jesus did what He did that week, knowing that it would cost Him His life.  Were His actions really worth it?

The next day, on Good Friday, I read about Jesus suffering, death, and burial, and I began to lament my lack of courage.  I have problems with the religious institution of my day, but, unlike Jesus, I don't have the courage to flip over proverbial tables and call out the liars, grifters, and political shills who lead churches.  I'm afraid of facing the consequences of speaking my mind.  On Good Friday, I found myself another cowardly disciple afraid to take up his own cross, not unlike the ones who abandoned and denied Jesus when He was arrested.⁷

"Then he cursed and swore, 'I don't know the man!'" (Mt 26:74a)

On Easter Sunday, I read about the Resurrection.  One morning, a couple of days after Jesus was crucified, two women visited His tomb and learned that He had been resurrected from the dead.  They encountered the risen Jesus, and relayed instructions to His disciples to meet Him in Galilee.⁸  When the Disciples met Jesus atop a mountain in Galilee, He said to them, "I've received all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.  Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age."⁹

Jesus' commissioning the Disciples put things into perspective for me.  Jesus did not tell the Disciples to keep flipping tables.  He told them to go and make disciples.  If I am indeed a disciple of Jesus, then I need to be using my spiritual gifts to make and strengthen other disciples and not looking for a fight.  That said, there may very well come a time when I am required to take a stand, as Jesus did and as His first disciples eventually did, and at that time I will need to be courageous.  As Jesus said, "All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me."¹⁰

May God give us all the clarity to do what God has called us to do and the courage to do what we are required to do.


Notes:

1. Matthew 21:1-13 (CEB)
2. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem.  2006, HarperOne.  p. 49
3. Matthew 21:18-20 (CEB)
4. Borg and Crossan, p. 56
5. Matthew 21:23-23:36
6. Matthew 26:36-39 (CEB)
7. Matthew 26:56b
8. Matthew 28:1-10
9. Matthew 28:16-20 (CEB)
10. Matthew 16:24 (CEB)

The Denial of St. Peter was painted by Gerard van Honthorst around 1623.