18 June 2023 – Third Sunday after Pentecost
by The Rev. Dr. Richard Burden
Sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. Richard Burden
Below is a DRAFT text of the homily. It may vary considerably from the recorded version. Please excuse typos and grammatical errors, and do not cite without permission.
“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves.”
Well, that sounds…frightening. But then, Jesus never says that following him won’t be scary…just that he will always be with us, even when it is.
Following Jesus is not easy, and it is rarely cozy…and it does require us to embrace varying levels of discomfort.
And I don’t know about you—but when my anxiety starts to spike…I find it really hard to stay focused on what’s clear and present before me…because I’m usually leaping to the most dire of consequences. And this gospel passage in particular is so chock full of so many really intense images, that by the time I get to the end of it…I can’t remember most of the details, because I’m a quivering bundle of nerves…”Sheep in the midst of wolves…?! They will hand you over to be flogged…!?! Brother betraying brother…!? children rising against parents…! you all be hated because of me!!” AAAHHH!!! I’m picturing Jesus sounding like Galadriel when Frodo offers her the One Ring—(that’s really scary). I flip into classic survival mode except that I usually bypass fight…blow right past fright…and gel into a kind of frozen panic state. And because of that I’ve forgotten several really important things in this passage.
I’ve forgotten who he’s talking about—who the wolves are that he’s sending us out to.They’re not savage barbarians…They’re not the Sons of Anarchy…they’re not even from all that far away. Remember, he says, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans.” The people he’s sending us to…are really close by…they are our co-religionists. He’s sending us to the people we know. The people who know us…Our families…Our friends…Our neighbors. And what’s so scary about that? We know them…
Now, we all know that family relationships can be some of the most fraught and challenging that many of us will ever face…and we also know that friendships can be full of friction, and misunderstandings, and hurt…and that all of our close relationships require work and presence, faithfulness and forgiveness…They require us to stretch, and learn, and grow. And sometimes it might feel like everyone has turned on you…or that for your own safety you might have to remove yourself from some relationships. But Jesus is not sending us into Squid Game…and I don’t think he’s saying these scary things are inevitable…that they will always happen…he’s just being honest about what can and does happen in some close relationships.
Another thing I lose track of when I’m frozen in anxiety is: what he is actually asking us to do? In the gospel he talks about: casting out unclean spirits, curing diseases, even raising the dead…which sounds totally NOT doable on so many levels. But then we have to remember that there is a good deal lost in translation (both from the Greek into English, and from the 1st century into the 21st century). The Greek doesn’t actually say “cure” it say “heal” —it’s the same root from which we get the word “therapy” and “therapeutic”. So while it can mean “heal”, it can also mean “serve”, or “care for”, or “treat”…and that is totally doable.
The word for raising the dead can also mean “rouse,” or “wake up”…and do we really think that Jesus never used a metaphor…that everything he said was literal? What if he’s not talking about actual dead people, but rather people who are “dead” in their faith…who are bereft—not of life—but of spirit? And he’s asking us to rouse them…back into life…into the community? Or perhaps, gently waking the despairing with a dose of hope.
What about casting out out demons? Sure, it could mean actual exorcism…but again, read a bit more metaphorically, couldn’t he be asking us to help people let go of…”exorcise”…any one of the many degrading, demonic energies we continually become enthralled to…money, power, image, nation, ideology, anything that ends with an “ism”…things we might now characterize more as addictions rather than evil spirits, but are just as destructive.
And all of these things—the healing, the rousing, the casting out…are really in service to the central message—they are examples that point to the core and it’s really this core message that we need to be focused on…
And what is that core message? “Proclaim the good news.” And what is “the good news?” Well, it’s that the reign of God is near…God is near…God is here. Love is here. Peace is here. Justice is here. Even in the midst of all that is hard, and difficult, and unjust and even falling apart…God is here, and present…and we are to be the proclaimers of that truth. Proclaiming the good news can be as simple as saying: we are here with you…and God is here with us. Really, all Jesus is inviting us to do…is tell the story… tell our story…of how we come to know and experience God…how we find hope, and share it…how we work with others to build communities where all are welcomed, and cherished. And that isn’t all that scary, is it?
“But I don’t know what to say…I don’t know the bible…I’m not a theologian…I’m not even sure I’m a very good Christian on most days”…That’s the anxiety talking again. And another thing anxiety always seems to make us forget is: Jesus has already given us the authority…HIS authority…and he tells us over and over again…you don’t need any more than that…you have everything you need to do this. “Don’t bother taking anything with you…and don’t worry about what you’re going to say”…just show up…be present…get quiet, if you need to…listen…and let “peace come upon you”…and the words will come. And if you say something wrong…learn from it, and move on…if you cause harm, apologize, learn from it, and move on…if they won’t listen to you, learn from it, shake it off, and move on. But keep showing up…and serving, and tending, and caring. Keep telling the story…and if you do that, you will be (as our collect says) “proclaiming God’s truth with boldness, and ministering God’s justice with compassion.” And that’s really all Jesus asks us to do. Amen.