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The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Jeremiah 20:7-13 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Gospel according to Matthew 10:16-33 ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. ‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 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! ‘So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 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. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. ‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We’re in a period of the Church year in which we deal with themes of discipleship. You’ll remember that in the Gospel lesson from last week (You do remember? You were all here last week, weren’t you? Of course you were.) You’ll remember that Jesus named the twelve apostles and then sent them out to proclaim the Good News. This issue about how to be a disciple of Jesus seems to evoke a variety of responses. For a lot of Christians, when they think of being a disciple of Jesus, they think that means that they should present a clean, happy, bright, cheerful, clean-cut kind demeanor. Sort of like we are to be Jesus’ cheerleaders, and that the role of the disciple is to bring a smile to a frowning world. You may remember a group called "Up with People." It was a group of young folks, very clean cut, who had big, sustained smiles that looked like they were advertising toothpaste. They sang feel-good songs. That’s what I think some Christians think discipleship is about — representing clean-cut American values and perpetual happiness to cheer the world up. Other churches, it seems to me, think of discipleship not so much in terms of going out, but of bringing in. So they want to make themselves so attractive that people will come there for the amenities. These are places that build "Family Life Centers" with gymnasiums, and swimming pools, and workout rooms, and all the amenities their members could possibly want from a country club, except, of course, they can get them from their church. Discipleship there is a pretty sweet deal. You encourage your friends to join the church because you want them to know God, and you want a racquetball partner. What Jesus says about discipleship doesn’t seem to fit any of that. After he names these twelve and tells them to go in haste, travel light, and stay focused as they proclaim the Good News, he gives them instructions and makes predictions that don’t seem to fit with bright eyed, bright smiled young people singing feel good songs or with Family Life Centers. Jesus, our great shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, says, "I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves." Whoa! He doesn’t beat around the bush. This not being an easy, fun, cheerful task to be accomplished by gleaming smiles or a quick game of racquetball at church. He goes on to predict that these disciples are going to be whipped, and beaten and dragged before rulers, and their proclamation will cause dissension and even betrayal and death. No wonder so many Christians retreat to a view of discipleship as being neat, clean, fun, spreading the happy news, telling people that if they just understood Jesus they could wear a smiley face. The truth about discipleship is much harder to bear. The truth is that Jesus calls us, like he called the twelve, into the heart of the dangerous, the unsafe, the unclean, the sinful, the heartache of the world. No one understood that better than Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a German theologian who, unlike most German theologians, opposed the Nazis on theological grounds. In a book called, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer wrote:
"If we lose our lives in His service and carry our cross, we shall find our lives again in the fellowship of the cross with Christ." Those are bold words, a far cry from a smiley-face view of discipleship, but, after all, talk is cheap. But not for Bonhoeffer. Although Bonhoeffer was in the United States when he wrote those words, and friends urged him to stay here where it was safe, he returned to Germany, where he felt God had work for him to do. He became a leader in the "Confessing Church" which opposed Hitler. In 1943, caught trying to help a group of Jews escape, Bonhoeffer was sent to a concentration camp. In April 1945, as the war in Germany was coming to a close, the German High Command did a very unusual thing; it issued a special order focusing on one single prisoner. And so Dietrich Bonhoeffer was taken out and hanged at Flossenburg Concentration Camp. The cost of discipleship was not cheap for Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is still not cheap for many Christians. We tend to think of martyrs as having lived in the early period of the Church, when the Romans fed them to lions. We tend to think of people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer as unusual, exceptions. But according to some counts, there were more Christian martyrs in the twentieth century than in the previous nineteen centuries combined. In places like China, the Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, India, and Egypt, wolves devour Christians. The Global Evangelism Movement estimates that 160, 000 Christians are martyred every year. And most of you are probably glad, as you should be, that you do not live in a place where it is not very likely that you will be called upon to be a martyr. But you do live in such a place. You see, we associate being a martyr with being killed, but the Greek word actually means "witness." And we, here in the relatively safe United States, are called upon to witness. And we, here in the United States where we are unlikely to be called upon to die for our faith, are called upon every day to give our lives to our faith. We are called as disciples to voluntarily wade into the dangerous and murky waters of uncertainty, fear, and heartache, to go into the pain of the world, and to minister there. That is not a vision of smiley-face discipleship or racquet ball games. But Jesus told us, his sheep, to go to where the wolves live. In the last three weeks, St. John’s has taken two steps that I believe will be momentous in our history. First, you responded enthusiastically to the opportunity for us to become a Supervised Visitation Center. Second, the Vestry voted last Tuesday to offer our empty space in the Education Building to Odyssey Counseling Center. As a Supervised Visitation Center, we will assist the courts in seeking reconciliation in families where abuse or neglect has caused the children to be removed. Odyssey Counseling Center provides a variety of mental health services, often to clients who cannot afford to pay. Neither of these two undertakings is in the arena of bright, smiley faces. This is not the clean, fun, ministry of racquetball courts. This is the dark side of life. This is the part of our reality that we really, really wish just weren’t there, and that so tempts us to just avert our eyes and pretend it just isn’t there. This is drug addiction, neglect of children, domestic abuse, mental illness, sexual abuse, children who have been beaten. This is victims trying to cope with having been raped. This is the cycle of violence, and addiction, and abuse that ruins lives and communities, and is handed down from generation to generation. This is where the wolves live. And this is right where we are called to be. Like sheep in their midst. Martyrs. Witnessing. Giving our lives. It is right where we are called to be. God’s sheep, in the midst of the wolves. As hard as it is to look at, may we never avert our eyes. As frightening as it can be to remain, may we never choose safety. For if we look away, surely we will miss seeing Christ. And if we flee these dangerous, painful places where the wolves live, surely we will be leaving Jesus behind. We go as sheep in the midst of wolves. But we go with God. The Rev. James H. Pritchett, Jr. St. John’s Episcopal Church, College Park, GA
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