A Radical Practice (6.21.20)

A Radical Practice
Matthew 10:24-39
June 21, 2020
Rev. Elizabeth Mangham Lott
St. Charles Ave. Baptist Church

24 “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

26 “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 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. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

32 “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

What a complicated text lays before us! Why does Jesus have to make it so complicated? Why can’t Jesus just tell us to follow our bliss and be present to the moment? Why does he have to throw in all of this talk of swords and violence and conflict? Why does he have to go and say all of it is inevitable if we are really following him? 

It’s almost as if following the Way of Jesus is not clean and easy. It’s almost as if he’s warning us that the anger and punitive aggression he leaves in his wake is going to be provoked by anyone who matches him step for step. It’s almost as if the way we’ve done Church in the West for a very long time really isn’t in step with the Way of Jesus at all.

You know that Mahatma Gandhi has been called “the modern world’s greatest prophet of nonviolence” as he led “a thirty-year struggle to free India, nonviolently, from British domination. But did you know that, though he was Hindu, “the only picture he had in his room at the Sabarmatbi Ashram…showed Jesus with an inscription below that read ‘He is our peace.’ Gandhi called Jesus the great ‘Asian prophet,’ a reminder to the West that our central figure of religious belief was not a Westerner at all. As Gandhi used to say, if Christians had actually done what Jesus taught us to do—namely, love our enemy—the world would long ago have been transformed.” It was the Hindu peacemaker Gandhi who lamented the disfigurement of Christianity “when it went to the West” because “It became the religion of kings” and no longer a radical practice of following Jesus.

Good morning! Happy beginning to Summer! We are diving straight into the deep end with this lesson today. This is the gospel text and gospel word we’ve been given to chew on, and we could spend the rest of our lives doing so. Let me say this again: It was the Hindu peacemaker Gandhi who lamented the disfigurement of Christianity “when it went to the West” because “It became the religion of kings” and no longer a radical practice of following Jesus.

It seems there’s a problem when Christianity becomes the religion of kings. Something essential is lost. Something radical is torn away. What is left is a perversion and a husk of the former thing. Please remember that an essential part of our story is that Jesus was not setting out to create this behemoth movement we know as Christianity. The Jesus Way was a reforming movement within 1st century Judaism speaking out against the closeness some of the faith leaders in Jerusalem had come to enjoy with the power of Rome. His radical teaching, his love of neighbor, his waging of peace to the ends of the earth was rooted in a particular faith tradition that, in some strains of the tradition, was compromising its message for the comforts of the Empire. 

We have been in a transformational season in the church for some time now—still stuck in the old ways of doing things but sensing in our beings the something new that is emerging. Having been out of our building and worshiping from our homes for over three months now, I think we’re more poised than ever to shed what no longer serves. With protests and marches and removals of monuments and robust conversations about reallocating city funds for the comprehensive flourishing of all people, we are in a moment that invites us to ask what a radical practice of following Jesus looks like?

Just to be really, really clear: he dies. That’s how the story goes. He pushes, he dismantles, he teaches a compelling nonviolence, he violates social mores and cultural boundaries. And when people begin to move from their assigned classes and places to not just listen to him but embody what he is teaching, he then becomes a threat to the status quo that must be subdued.

So to follow him in radical ways might spark fear in his followers. Anticipating that, Jesus lays it all out in this complicated word according to Matthew. “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household.” Ugh. Disastrous. I don’t want to hear this! Calm down with the histrionics, Jesus! Let’s just hang out in the “love your neighbor as yourself” and “my peace I leave you” departments. 

A radical practice of following Jesus re-orders and disrupts everything, and Jesus is telling his followers to anticipate that disruption. Jesus knows that people don’t like for their lives to be interrupted and their habits to be disturbed. Even the ones who say they want to leave a better world for their grandchildren than the one they have known really don’t like the process involved in making that world better. Expect pushback, Jesus is saying, and do not be afraid. Over and over he says, “have no fear,” “do not fear,” and “do not be afraid.” Because this radical practice of following Jesus ultimately leads you to the truest life you have ever known, and that is something to celebrate and not something to fear.

Stanley Saunders, Columbia Seminary prof, writes, ”From the moment we are born, we learn to fear the world around us, certainly to fear the stranger, sometimes to fear even those who are closest to us. Political leaders have long recognized the power of fear in ensuring our conformity to the structures this world, even when doing so does not serve our best interests. Fear is the driving force behind vast segments of our economy, as well as, increasingly, our political priorities.

Jesus recognizes that fear will also cause the failure of discipleship.”

In naming fear, he is freeing his followers of the subconscious grip it has on our actions and choices, our subconscious loyalties and allegiances. Have no fear. Do not fear. Do not be afraid.

“Why does Jesus highlight the horrors that await the disciples,” Saunders asks. “Naming aloud the suffering to be endured and its causes is the first step in freeing them from the tenacious grip of fear. In the latter half of the discourse…Jesus continues to describe worst case scenarios, wound together with statements of reassurance and repeated calls to resist fear.”

“The sayings in 10:32-39 again encourage disciples to remain firm in their commitment to Jesus and their mission, even when that mission generates inevitable conflicts, even within their families. The saying in 10:34 is crucial: although Jesus has called his disciples to be peacemakers (5:9), his mission does not bring peace, but a sword, so long as the powers resist God’s rule and will. The very act of peacemaking, as Jesus’ ministry demonstrates, generates violence, for healing, restoration, and the conquest of death threaten the foundations of all human assertions of power in defiance of God.” Peace, like war, must be waged.

“Finally, the call to discipleship renders secondary all other claims upon one’s identity and allegiance, even to father or mother, or son or daughter (10:37, cf. 8:21-22, 12:46-50). To ‘take up the cross’ (10:38-39) aligns the disciples’ mission and fate with that of Jesus, that is, with the humiliation, suffering, shame, opposition, and death that Jesus persistently speaks about here.

Taking up the cross implies identification with the marginal people (slaves and rebels) who were subject to Roman crucifixion, because they did not align themselves with or submit themselves to Rome’s authority. But Jesus promises that those who ‘lose their life’ for him will in fact 'find it,’ while those who ‘find their lives’ in the world will lose them (10:39).”

I’m not asking you to put yourself in the path of physical violence and death this morning. But I am inviting you to step more fully into the radical practice of following Jesus that Gandhi so admired. I’m inviting you to open yourselves to learning new ways of engaging our privileged position in this age and this moment in this nation. I’m inviting you to welcome the ache of questioning what you have taken for granted, for picking apart your assumptions, to allow yourself the pain and discomfort of being wrong and learning something new that calls you to help make a better world for your grandchildren than the one you have inherited. 

I believe the promise of Jesus that we will find our lives in losing them—in losing the old ways, in losing the life by inertia, in giving up more of our privilege and comfort, of allowing old practices and habits to die. It sounds so daunting! It sounds like so much to ask of one person much less a whole community of people! But have no fear. Do not fear. Do not be afraid. A life you never even dared to dream or imagine is waiting for you, and only in losing this old one can any of us ever hope to find it.

Amen.