This Week's Sermon
June 25, 2017 The Rev. Bill Van Oss
So do not be afraid, you are of more value that many sparrows.
Today’s Gospel passage is part of a long section of Matthew’s Gospel commonly called the Missionary Discourse. It consists of a series of sayings as Jesus sends His disciples out on their mission. It’s bits of wisdom, advice, on how to live His teachings, how to be His followers.
The first thing to notice about these sayings is that they are not asking the disciples to give intellectual assent to theological propositions. In other words, believing in Jesus is not about ideas, not about how you live your life. Discipleship is work. Discipleship is about what you do and say. It’s not just ideas in your head, and it comes through loud and clear in today’s passage that discipleship will not always be easy.
Following Jesus will involve taking risks and standing against how the world operates and treats some people and sometimes being at odds with others, even people near to us, so that we can proclaim and live out the unconditional love of God for each and every human being. These are difficult sayings in our Gospel passage today.
Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” A sword. “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Difficult sayings. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, right? Jesus came to unite us in bonds of love, right? What of these words of sword and divisions, even among families?
As I pondered these troubling sayings in my comfortable office last week, my mind went back to our recent trip to Chicago. We walked down Michigan Avenue where I watched people coming and going from the high-end retail stores and I saw people asking for handouts on the sidewalk. The people looking for a handout cannot approach you and ask, instead they sit quietly on the sidewalk holding a cardboard sign that gives you a tiny piece of their story.
One man held a sign that said, PTSD-war veteran,” another said, “Unable to walk,” another was looking for “21 dollars to pay for a room.” Most said, “Homeless, Hungry.” No family, no one. They sat quietly, most simply watching the people go by and thanking the ones who dropped something in their cup, but I noticed one man who was very intently reading a thick book. He wasn’t watching the people pass by, he was reading with fervor and intensity. I could even see his lips moving. When I looked down I saw that he was reading the Bible.
I thought about that beggar feverishly reading his Bible as I pondered Jesus’ difficult sayings in my comfortable office last week. I wondered how difficult those saying would sound to him from his perspective. Jesus brings not peace but a sword, a sword to dismantle unjust systems that lead to so many ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’
The man on the street might see the sword as God’s desire to cut out, to eliminate blighted neighborhoods, and racism and violence, and failing schools. Take the sword to the battle against addiction and mental illness, for he knows in his heart that peace can only come when there is justice and opportunity for all of God’s children.
I wondered about Jesus’ saying about discord and division in families. How would that sound to the man on the street? For me growing up in a safe and loving home these are difficult words to understand, but the man might have grown up with abuse, or neglect. He might have been told he was worthless and wouldn’t amount to anything, or perhaps he grew up in a fundamentalist family who wouldn’t accept who he is.
The Lord telling him to separate himself from that would be Good News, but the lines of today’s Gospel that might have the most impact on him might be these, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from God. And even the hairs of your head are all counted.” Imagine how that would sound to the guy on the street as all those people are passing by. To know that God cares about him, that God loves him even to the point of knowing the hairs on his head. It might be the only love he’s even known.
When we encounter difficult passages, difficult sayings in the Bible, it is good to consider them not just from our perspective, but from someone else’s. What might these words sound like to someone whose life is very different from mine? How does reflecting on them from another person’s perspective inspire me to do the work of discipleship? Inspire us to do the work of building a more just, compassionate and humane world, the work of building the world as God intended it to be.
June 25, 2017 The Rev. Bill Van Oss
So do not be afraid, you are of more value that many sparrows.
Today’s Gospel passage is part of a long section of Matthew’s Gospel commonly called the Missionary Discourse. It consists of a series of sayings as Jesus sends His disciples out on their mission. It’s bits of wisdom, advice, on how to live His teachings, how to be His followers.
The first thing to notice about these sayings is that they are not asking the disciples to give intellectual assent to theological propositions. In other words, believing in Jesus is not about ideas, not about how you live your life. Discipleship is work. Discipleship is about what you do and say. It’s not just ideas in your head, and it comes through loud and clear in today’s passage that discipleship will not always be easy.
Following Jesus will involve taking risks and standing against how the world operates and treats some people and sometimes being at odds with others, even people near to us, so that we can proclaim and live out the unconditional love of God for each and every human being. These are difficult sayings in our Gospel passage today.
Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” A sword. “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Difficult sayings. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, right? Jesus came to unite us in bonds of love, right? What of these words of sword and divisions, even among families?
As I pondered these troubling sayings in my comfortable office last week, my mind went back to our recent trip to Chicago. We walked down Michigan Avenue where I watched people coming and going from the high-end retail stores and I saw people asking for handouts on the sidewalk. The people looking for a handout cannot approach you and ask, instead they sit quietly on the sidewalk holding a cardboard sign that gives you a tiny piece of their story.
One man held a sign that said, PTSD-war veteran,” another said, “Unable to walk,” another was looking for “21 dollars to pay for a room.” Most said, “Homeless, Hungry.” No family, no one. They sat quietly, most simply watching the people go by and thanking the ones who dropped something in their cup, but I noticed one man who was very intently reading a thick book. He wasn’t watching the people pass by, he was reading with fervor and intensity. I could even see his lips moving. When I looked down I saw that he was reading the Bible.
I thought about that beggar feverishly reading his Bible as I pondered Jesus’ difficult sayings in my comfortable office last week. I wondered how difficult those saying would sound to him from his perspective. Jesus brings not peace but a sword, a sword to dismantle unjust systems that lead to so many ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’
The man on the street might see the sword as God’s desire to cut out, to eliminate blighted neighborhoods, and racism and violence, and failing schools. Take the sword to the battle against addiction and mental illness, for he knows in his heart that peace can only come when there is justice and opportunity for all of God’s children.
I wondered about Jesus’ saying about discord and division in families. How would that sound to the man on the street? For me growing up in a safe and loving home these are difficult words to understand, but the man might have grown up with abuse, or neglect. He might have been told he was worthless and wouldn’t amount to anything, or perhaps he grew up in a fundamentalist family who wouldn’t accept who he is.
The Lord telling him to separate himself from that would be Good News, but the lines of today’s Gospel that might have the most impact on him might be these, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from God. And even the hairs of your head are all counted.” Imagine how that would sound to the guy on the street as all those people are passing by. To know that God cares about him, that God loves him even to the point of knowing the hairs on his head. It might be the only love he’s even known.
When we encounter difficult passages, difficult sayings in the Bible, it is good to consider them not just from our perspective, but from someone else’s. What might these words sound like to someone whose life is very different from mine? How does reflecting on them from another person’s perspective inspire me to do the work of discipleship? Inspire us to do the work of building a more just, compassionate and humane world, the work of building the world as God intended it to be.
