Pentecost 4

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 20, 1999

TEXT: Matthew 10:16-33 - What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the house-tops. 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.

ISSUE: Here's another one of those very daring passages of Matthew's account of the Gospel of Jesus. It is a call to faithful commited endurance in the face of a hostile, cruel and deceptive world. It is a call to be a part of the surrogate Family of The Father, and it enhances the disciple's sense of worth, being so much more valuable than a sparrow. Disciples need not fear the world, and those who kill the body, but the loss of the soul, one's very being, to be without a purposeful servanthood life in the family of God is the greater loss.
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Today's Gospel reading from the account of Matthew is another daring and courageous statements given to the early Christian community of Matthew. It is a charge to the disciples to carry on a faithful and enduring ministry in the face of the high probability of persecution. It is a continuation of last week's narrative.
Last week you Jesus charged the disciples to begin ministries in the surrounding communities. They were to proclaim the Goodnews to the poor, to all the expendable poor people that they were not expendable in the sight of God. That they were indeed loved and worthy of God's abounding grace. The disciples were also to have a ministry of healing, a ministry of to a world where people often died at a very young age, and who were afflicted with a large variety of diseases as a result of poor nutrition and sanitation. The sick who often became outcasts and untouchables, and who were ostracized from the community and temple as a result of their illness and physical handicaps were to be restored to community. This restoration was their healing for the most part. These disciples are to carry no excess baggage, but were very Franciscan in their approach to their new ministries as the disciples of Jesus. Where the disciples find hospitality, they are stay and do their work. Where they meet with inhospitality, they are to shake the dust off of their feet and move on.
Jesus continues to instruct these disciples in today's passage concerning how very difficult their work may be, "I am sending you out as sheep into the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." What a paradox: wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves.! No doubt Jesus is well aware of the fact that what he sends them to do is not especially easy, anymore than it was easy for himself. Matthew who is writing well after Jesus's crucifixion knows well how difficult the servant ministry was for Jesus who became condemned and crucified.
When Matthew is writing this Gospel, it was in a very troubled time. Jerusalem and the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. It was a time of great apprehension and uncertainty. In times like these people become very fixed and intensely devoted to their rules and their ways. There is a grasping for certainty and a kind of clinging and holding on to the old ways. But Jesus, and the fledgling organization of this early church, was forming a new kind of community and it was very threatening to people in these troubled times. Thus, there were sporadic persecutions of both Jews and Christians. Jesus is warning, as is Matthew, that it will be hard. It was during this same period that St. Paul was being brought before Roman governors, and persecuted by his own Jewish brothers. People who were followers of Jesus and left their families to follow him were becoming hated and held in great suspicion. Many poor people who had lost their land and were bewildered aimless wanderers would find great comfort and security in being a part of this new Christian community. It was all very risky to leave family behind which was your sole support in life to join with this new surrogate family. They are fully warned by Jesus how tough a road it will be. A slave is no better than his master and a student no better than his teacher. If they thought of Jesus himself as Beelzebul ('Dungface,' - i.e. Eugene Peterson, "The Message.") they will think the same of you.
But says Jesus I dare you to hold nothing back to have no secrets: "What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the house-tops" In this culture it was extraordinarily difficult to have any privacy. People who were private were held with great suspicion, and were considered as devious. Children were used as spies. You would send you children to spy on other families. As a result of having so little privacy in this kind of culture people lied a lot, and tried to keep family secrets so as to not lose honor and status in the community.
Notice that in the Bible, the expression "Truly, Truly, I say to you." is used. It was an expression that attempted to convey in a world where people lied a lot that this particular statement is really the truth. When the mothers send the children to Jesus to touch them and bless them, recall that the disciples try to stop them. Their action is not out of hardheartedness so much as children were spies, they told their parents secrets about other families and possibly about this movement. Jesus insists, "Let the children come to me, and do not stop them." The Kingdom of Empire of God belongs to them too, and there is nothing to hide and there is no deception like you find in the world. So in this passage today, Jesus tells his disciples to hold nothing back. There are no secrets and nothing to hide but proclaim the Empire of God boldly. Don't worry about who may persecute you or harm the body; worry about who can harm the soul. Here is a daring encouraging call to proclaim the Gospel Good News of hope for the the poor, the broken and sick, for thelast, the lost, the least with energy and vitality in the face of persecution. Let the age of secrecy and deception be done away with.
Realize your worth says Jesus to the calling of God's people and disciples. Sparrows were used by the poor for offering sacrifices. They were bought for 1/16th of a denarius, a very trivial amount. But how much more is your offering worth as my disciples in the eyes of God the Father. Jesus in this passage calls his disciple to a truthful awareness of it being a difficult time, but at the same time to be enduring, courageous, persevering, and to know their value and worth in that ministry.
Relating scriptural passages to our world in this time in American history is somewhat difficult, or we don't quite appreciate such a passage. It is hard to translate into the modern era because right now in this country we don't really see the church as under any significant or specific persecution. So passages to stand firm in the face of persecution are for us somewhat hollow. There have, however, been some recent severe religious persecutions in other parts of the world, but hese have been in Africa and South America. Here at home we seem relatively safe from persecution. Yet, the demand remains to proclaim the Gospel from the roof tops, and this is perhaps the more difficult part for American Christians in a time where we cherish our privacy and exclusiveness. Our faith is for most of us a "private" matter. There are very definite needs to be evangelistic if we are to be really people of God.
At the Columbine High School there was the young girl whose name was Cassy, who faced a very violent young man, and confessed that indeed she did believe in God, and was presumably shot for saying so.
We do in fact belong to a community of faith that is committed to reconciliation and serving the world with a message of compassion, caring, and love. Prior to and during World War II, many Jewish people, homosexuals, gypsies, trade unionists in one of the most religious countries in the world were executed for their beliefs, while fellow countrymen and the rest of the world looked on with indifference.
In the recent events in Yugoslavia we've witnessed once again the persecution and the vicious cruelty of one race and religion impossed upon another. This kind of violence persists even today in our world. Few proclaim from the housetops, or in the appropriate forums that this conduct is evil and ungodly behavior. It is not appropriate for Christians to condemn another people of God with hatred.
In our present world and country we Americans live in the midst of significant affluence in the face of a world that knows considerable poverty and oppression of the poor. We ignore the Franciscan like aspects of our faith in giving up generously, and living modestly so that others may just live.
Some of our popular TV shows today perpetuate the humiliation of the poor. Jerry Springer's show, Jenny Jones, and Sally Jessie Raphael all seem to humiliate poor and young people with their sensationalistic shows of sleezy topics while a large part of the country watches and laughs.
The real good news in this passage today is that Jesus saw in his disciples great potential and worth. He believed that they could join him in a significant mission of healing, hope, compassion, and reconciliation. He knew full well the potential of these people to face criticism and persecution with dignity. Without accepting the call our lives remain somehwo meaningless, purposeless, without dignity and worth.
There is a saying or aphorism that goes something like this: "If you were ever convicted of being a Christian, Would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Fac t of the matter is that sometimes the Christian world today is in fact so harmless that it is not much of an impact, not much of a disturbing influence to the world that creates and urges people to check and evaluate their consciences in terms of whether or not they do what God demands.
In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, there is the story of the apostles getting arrested for teaching about and in the name of Jesus. In the night they were, according to the story, released by and angel. They next day they were re-arrested because they had gone right back to the Temple to continue persistently teaching and proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ. They considered being disgraced for the sake of Jesus as a great honor. (Acts. 5:17-42) In the reading today from the prophet Jeremiah, he says that "If I will not mention him (God) or speak any more in this name, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." To ponder such allegiance and loyalty of the prophets, the apostles, the early Christians is indeed awesome. To see our selves divorced from this allegiance and loyalty is to step into the meaninglessness and hopelessness of the world.