RADICAL, REALLY RADICAL…
Psalm 69:7-18; Romans 6:1-11; Matthew 10:24-39
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
So, you ready to talk about sin & salvation this morning? God’s anger toward humanity, including us, commonly called ‘wrath’? Our enslavement to things that only bring death rather than buoyant life? How about hatred for your family members, rejection by your friends and neighbors; doesn’t this sound like a fun romp through Scripture? Maybe we should just sing ‘Kumbaya’ and go home? Radical, Really Radical…
The Lectionary has thrown us into a series of challenges this summer season, laid down by Jesus in these sections of Matthew’s gospel and by Paul in Romans. The congregation gathered to hear Matthew’s interpretation of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are in fact experiencing what he has Jesus say. They are having difficulties because they are disrupting the status quo, the way its always been done and believed. It is not Jesus’ opponents who have strange ideas, its Jesus’ disciples; it is controversial, adversarial at times, even subversive, that is, to destroy what has been.
Because the Messiah has already come - the nascent Christian view - all of their previous understanding of who God is and how God works in the world is blown apart. Its like they have to start all over, with a foundation in Torah and the Prophets, but now this added encounter with the one who says, “I have come to set sons and daughters against their parents; you better love me more than you love your child and so forth…’
If you had a chance to read through all of Matthew’s gospel before today, you would have run into this verse in chapter 9, verse 34: the Pharisees charged Jesus: “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” This is the context of Jesus’ teaching in chapter 10.
The tension between the Pharisees, Jesus, the disciples, the women, is rising. Matthew’s concern in writing his gospel is for these followers, Jewish-Christian men and women, still connected to the synagogue at this point, yet believe the Promised Messiah has come in Jesus. The split between Jews and Christians does not happen until later. It mirrors the divide that happened between Catholics and Protestants in the Reformation, where 500 years later, we are in deep dialogue with one another, re-discovering the beauty and connections we have in our shared Christian faith. Or the split in the early 20th century between Protestants and Pentecostals. We are better at dividing then staying together.
“They have already said I am in league with the devil--just wait, they’re going to say worse things about you,” Jesus instructs. “But don’t be afraid, they can only kill the body. They cannot touch your soul. Fear the one who can send you to hell.” Now, this is a word many modern day Christians want to avoid. But there is something for us here.
Paul’s frame for the whole argument in Romans is this: it is impossible for us to escape sin’s dominion over us by our own efforts. ‘While we were yet sinners…’ what happened? Christ died for us. You and you and me and the whole world. Paul spent 14 years after his dramatic conversion on the road to Emmaus, 14 years away from the crowds, to study his beloved Torah, the law and the prophets, and now the life, death and resurrection of his Savior, Jesus Christ. He plumbed the depths of our depravity - our universal turn away from the goodness of God to the self-centered ‘me, me, me’ capital S sin. Everything that is wrong in this world comes down to this. Individuals and groups I might add, center themselves as their own little gods, and do everything in their power to make the world bend to fulfill their desires. This battle is encouraged and enhanced by the presence of the demonic, a satan power if you will, who seduces people toward evil, as a way to maintain self-centered power. There are plenty of examples and if we are really honest in our confession, we would admit to being our own little tyrants, wanting our way, verbally pushing and shoving and manipulating to get others to either do our will or get out of the way. Fallenness is both a structure of our habitation and a practice of our lust for power. (Say twice)
Our modern way of thinking is to privilege our autonomy and resist any notion of enslavement to sin. But listen to Paul, he gets you: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.’ (7:15) A succinct statement of failure and a clear-eyed assessment of why we need a Savior. He always pushes us to think more deeply about what it means to be WITH Christ while at the same time, living in this crazy, mixed up, chaotic and violent world.
But let me be clear about this: Paul is not damning you to hell and despair, rather he is lifting you up to be energized by grace, God’s amazing grace, in that, while we were yet sinners… Jesus died. It wasn’t a good man dying for a good friend, rather it was God Himself, who loves us, gave up His life so we might live forever. His anger satisfied, all though not complete, in that God still rages at injustice and harm and undeserved suffering. He challenges us to get up and get going to do our part, in cooperation with Him. Why? To bring about His shalom, His well-being for all and for His precious, beautiful, fragile earth. The kingdom of heaven. Radical, Really Radical…
‘A long obedience in the same direction’ is Eugene Petersen’s captivating statement of faith and book title. Yet in our culture and around the world, Obedience is often understood from an authoritarian mindset. There are any number of government leaders who are authoritarian, stripping away structures of democracy, freedom of movement, engagement of a free press. Some even do this with the label of Christian attached to it!
There is an imbalance of power and you are on the bottom, looking up. You do not get to have your own thoughts or ideas, rather you look to ‘the man’ as we say, although it could be a woman too. Follow me, I know you feel squeezed by these immigrants, by these feminists, by these socialists - I’m your retribution, these leaders say. I’ve got the power, never forget. There’s not enough to go around so follow me and you’ll get the crumbs.
This is not gospel! This is not abundant life for everybody! Jesus says, ‘Follow me, my worldview is a movement toward a goal - that is, the kingdom of heaven for everyone. A plentiful redemption the Psalmist writes. What are the manifestations of power within Jesus’ movement? The way God's Spirit manifests itself most convincingly is through its fruits: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galatians 5:22). These fruits speak for themselves. It is always better to raise the question "How can I grow in the Spirit? Or how can we grow in the Spirit" than the question "How can I make others believe in the Spirit?” For as we grow, we show forth more broadly the very Presence of God through the Holy Spirit. No one gets argued in to heaven, rather it is the faithful, continuous, obedient practices that open up the spaces for others to see this deep and beautiful light. The authoritarian model will always fight against these showings, as they only want to cling to power and honestly? View the future with hostility and especially fear.
Your call to obedience is daily and life long. Yes, you might be reviled, ignored or persecuted. Oh well. At the end of the day, the word we all want to hear? Well done good and faithful servants, well done.
This demand of radical obedience, radical defined as going to the very root, has a peculiar humility buried in it. No matter how many Sundays you’ve been in worship, how many times you’ve read the Bible, how many Christian books you’ve read, how many prayers you’ve said, nonetheless, you still have something to learn. We all do. We are never going to know it all, understand it all, until that day, when all is revealed. And then? We will rejoice, fall to our knees in glad adoration, the light unbearable and beautiful.
Radical, Really Radical…