Sermons

"Not Peace But A Sword"
Proper 7 Year A GASP
Genesis 21:8-21; Romans 6:1b-11; Mt10:24-39
The Rev. Julie Kelsey
Sunday June 22, 2008

Last week we shared Sarah’s laughter at the preposterousness of God...how God makes the impossible possible - sometimes even through instruments like us. Today the gospel reading gets down to serious business: the implications of God’s call to us.

When Jesus initially called the disciples, it was a simple invitation. “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men and women.” It sounded like a great new job opportunity, with Jesus as their personal trainer. With their settings on cruise control, they listened and learned from him. They watched him heal people, cast out demons, and perform miracles. They asked questions and got answers.

But beginning here in chapter 10 in the Gospel of Matthew something changes. No more cruise control! No more couch potato discipling! The end of comfortably sitting and learning with Jesus. Now it’s their turn, time for them to be about the work of ministry, time for them to help God in the work of saving God’s people.

Yes, we know it’s like sending in the clowns, it’s like sending us... but to Jesus this is no laughing matter. He makes that very clear: as you go out into the world, he tells them, I need you to understand a few things. I’m sending you out, but don’t think life will be any different for you than it has been for me. Don’t think that because I have called you, you’re about to enter a comfort zone.

I did not come to bring peace to the earth - and if you are my disciple, neither will you. I came not to bring peace but a sword, not to maintain the status quo but to bring about change - a new world order. I didn’t choose you to free you from these challenges... I chose you to live WITH them.... which could mean disruption at the very least, and for some...persecution, even death.

I lived with a father who was in the advertising business and who schooled me early in how to package and sell a product. Over the years, I have bought more than my share of terrible products because the ads were so convincing. But no matter how you package them, disruption, persecution and death, are not going to sell well in Peoria...or Hamden...or anywhere else.

You wouldn’t buy something with those side effects, would you? Wouldn’t you prefer to sign up for something different, say a ministry of popularity and praise...or prosperity and abundance... something that has an instant cash out - and pay back - if we buy in? Or at the very least, how about a call to comfort and peace?

Well...it seems that is not what Jesus is offering. Jesus isn’t a politician or a marketing man. He isn’t selling anything. He is brutally - offensively honest - about discipleship. If one is not going to be “ a Christian” in name only... If one is going to be his disciple...one will pay a price.

Discipleship is not the invitation to glory and honor we hoped for. It’s a call to sacrifice - sometimes to suffering... a call to live life Jesus’ way ... healing, teaching, touching, restoring the outcast - even when the world turns against you, even when those you love reject everything you stand for and the message you bring... Even when your congregation doesn’t want to listen to your sermon!

This is a costly proposition. Doing whatever you do in your life focusing on God’s will for justice and respect and dignity for ALL people - and not on profits - does not make one popular. In politics, it can cost you in the next election. In business you may be fired. When you preach it, at the very least people may tune out. Some might even stop coming to church.

If Jesus’ message is not watered down to make pretty and easy to swallow so it will preach in Peoria, it’s a message that’s offensive - and tough. None of us wants to hear it - because it will cost us.... not to mention the fact that no one wants to encounter opposition, roadblocks, and opposition at every turn.

Jesus tried to reassure the disciples “Don’t be afraid.” “Don’t be afraid of those who will oppose you, for your life is more valuable than you can imagine. Even the hairs on your head are numbered. Do not be held hostage by fear. Do what God says. With God on your side, there will be nothing to fear.

OK. I get that part. So I take a firm stand for universal health care, for ending windfall profits for the oil companies, for closing the gap between rich and poor... what about this other stuff about hating family? Even having to leave them if I follow after you?

No, Jesus might say in answer - It’s not about abandoning or neglecting your family and family commitments. Just don’t make them more important to you that I am. Your children, your family are not God. They cannot give you the centeredness and peace you crave. They cannot give your life meaning. They cannot give you freedom and well-being, eternal life and salvation. Only God can - when you reorient your priorities to God and God’s kingdom.

Oh I can feel the tension in my stomach now. Remembering when I told my family I was going to seminary... and that I wanted to be ordained, I didn’t know whether they - or the tension - would kill me. I do know that without that tension, I would have talked the talk but never walked the walk... Anything to avoid rocking the boat.

Jesus is frank, blunt, clear. He is not interested in selling something or getting reelected to political office. He is about nothing less than changing the world... which it desperately needs. And you and I are being sent out into the world in the name of Christ to start making that change happen. We are to go out and to be about the business of healing the sick, offering a cup of cold water to the little ones in our society, bringing new life and hope to the outcasts being a voice for the voiceless. We are to be as radical and offensive as Jesus was - and as radically different from the ways of our society and those whose power runs it.

If you are willing, you will never be the same. For you will lose the old life you once valued and discover new life: new perceptions, new purpose, new meaning, new peace. It may not be easy... but then nothing worth anything seems to be easy.

Continue on in your lives as disciples of Christ. That is the charge with which I leave you today. Have no doubts. Do not fear. Keep giving generously. Welcome the stranger. Care for the uncared for. Never forget God had more in store for you than you could ever desire or pray for.

I have been so fortunate to have been a guest in this Body of Christ...to have shared your stories, to have been inspired by your courage, to have laughed with you at God’s unexpected surprises. I can’t wait to see and hear what God has in store for you next.

But for today, I just want to say thank you - for all you have given to me and to David. Your light has shined brightly for us. Keep it burning in the days ahead.

And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you his peace...this day and in the days to come. Amen.

"Laugh"
Genesis 18: 1-15; Romans 5:1-8; Mt 9:35-10:8
Proper 6 Year A GASP
The Rev. Julie Kelsey
Sunday June 15, 2008

Sarah Laughed.

Listening at the tent door as God’s representative told her husband, Abraham, that she would have a child at the ripe old age of 90, Sarah laughed. Not, I imagine, the self-conscious laughter you laugh when you suddenly find yourself in the spotlight and you know you aren’t prepared; not the nervous laughter you force when someone cracks a joke you don’t get; not the sarcastic laughter you laugh when you feel humiliated; not the giggly laughter you laugh when life is wonderful and you just feel great - not even the belly laughter you laugh at a good joke like:

How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb? Three but they’re really one.

Sarah Laughed. But I daresay Sarah’s laughter was the laughter of incredulity, the laughter that dismisses a dream, a possibility completely out of hand as impossible, something that can never happen. Sarah laughed at God’s improbable promise to Abraham: “about this time next year Sarah your wife will bear a son.”

This was the second time Abraham had been given this promise. When he heard it the first time, HE fell face down - and laughed. How can a son be born to man 100 yrs old and a woman 90? Ridiculous! A joke! For each one of them, it was the laughter of utter disbelief.

Surely Sarah’s laugh was right on target. From a human perspective, her disbelief was entirely appropriate. People do not procreate at such old ages - they are fortunate if they even live that long! But from God’s point of view? “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” God rebuked Sarah for a faith too small, a faith that didn’t believe God...could do the impossible. But their son, Isaac - whose name in Hebrew means “he laughs” - would always remind them - not just of their disbelief, but also how God does fulfill God’s promises despite improbable - unbelievable - even hopeless - circumstances.

Fast forward to Jesus traveling about teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, curing every disease and sickness. The need was so great, the harvest so plentiful, the laborers so few. So Jesus appointed the 12 - commissioning them to do so much, equipping them with so little with which to do it. Another one of God’s jokes - what can so few people hope to accomplish with no resources? I imagine them laughing with Sarah-like laughter, just the way we do when we’re asked to do the impossible... pass the test, raise the child, pay the bills, find the job, recover from the hurt, end the grief, have the patience.... do whatever it is we know we can’t possibly do.

The disciples were going out on a critically important mission with ridiculous equipment: no money, no food - not even snacks - inadequate clothing... What can you do but laugh? It’s ridiculous!

But that is what life with God is all about... ridiculously wonderful things happening to totally inadequate people, good and bad, faithful and flawed, followers and fools.... Wonderful things happen because we are the ones God has chosen to work through. And if we haven’t laughed yet, surely the fact that God has chosen us is best laugh of all!

Most of the time, we don’t have the resources for whatever it is that God has in mind for us. And that’s just the point - God is God, we are not. But God has commissioned us at baptism to do what we can to heal the sick, comfort the lonely, care for the widows and the orphans, share our own stories as Susan did last week so that the world can see and hear that the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear. For in Christ, God’s kingdom has begun right in our midst.

Jesus asks only that do the best we can with what we have. No contingency plans. No fall back measures. For though we forget it, Jesus knows we are simply God’s instruments, and God will work through us to accomplish God’s purposes. Our job is to move brazenly forward in faith, and when we do, we will see: the old and dried up will come to have new life. The unlikely, the unfit, the unworthy will reveal the face of Christ. And we will laugh the laughter of conspiratorial joy as we participate in God’s new creation.

And we are so desperately needed! Have you ever looked at the faces of the people you pass on the street? How many of them are laughing? How many of them look like there is joy in their lives?

On the street I see people who are poor, really poor. And I imagine a woman I pass saying “I live at the end of my rope, at the end of my tether. Don’t ask me what I need. I don’t know. And if I did, who would listen? Pray for me, speak for me, speak for all who are poor.

I see people on drugs. And I imagine a man saying I am one of the dregs, one of the smashed people. I live at the end of the road, at the end of a needle. Don’t ask me why I’m hooked. I’m not interested in being analyzed, only in my next fix. Pray for me - and for those whose trade is destroying me.

And I see the successful people, and I imagine the well-dressed man and woman saying we are the powerful brokers...we live at the end of the road and on the end of the telephone. Don’t ask us where our consciences are - we don’t want to feel guilty. We want to be understood. Pray for us - that someone will show us how to use our power and privilege.

And then I look around and see all of us....the average folk, who live together in Christ, on the road for God’s kingdom, God’s advance people. We are the un-wealthy, unsophisticated, un-powerful people, but people whom God has touched and with whom Jesus Christ wants to change the world.

Like Sarah, we’ve overheard the news that God has something in mind for us. Who me? Laughter. Who us here at Grace and St Peter’s? The small white church in the middle of Hamden? Laughter. The “you’ve got to be kidding” kind of laughter. I’m not old enough, young enough, smart enough...I’m not ENOUGH We don’t have enough people who can help, or enough resources...we don’t have ENOUGH.

But God is the one having the last laugh, the “you just don’t know who I am” kind of laugh... And I can hear God saying Haven’t miracles been happening all around you in the last 7 years? Look at your beautiful church: repaired and beautiful. Look at your mission work: generosity abounds. Look at all of you...I have and I will transform the laughter of your despair and disbelief into the laughter of sheer joy as you see the new life I will bring out of your darkness.

And so I say to you: Hope. Believe. Trust. God Keeps God’s promises. As you go throughout your life, proclaim the good news. Cure the sick at heart with your laughter and joy. Extend a hand to raise up the dead and despairing. And laugh...laugh with joy and amazement at the impossible becoming possible. Laugh - and go out into the world, rejoicing. It is time to go forth.