The truth of the Gospel comforts us when we are afflicted, but it also afflicts us when we are comfortable.
Today is June 21, 2020, the third Sunday after Pentecost in lectionary year A. The sermon texts for this week are Jeremiah 20:7-13 and Matthew 10:24-39.
Here’s the audio and video of the sermon:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
In 1902, a writer named Finley Peter Dunne came up with the line “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” He was writing about the role of newspapers in society, but I think every seminary preaching professor since then has used that line to describe the goal of the sermon.
One of my pet peeves is pastors talking in a sermon about the process of sermon-writing, so forgive me for a moment. Part of what’s hard about preaching is finding the right and faithful balance between comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
I tend to err on the side of comforting the afflicted. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The Gospel is good news. We come to church to hear a word of hope, for comfort, to hear the promise of God’s faithfulness.
Sometimes the church needs to be the anchor in a changing world, the one place where you know you’ll be accepted and loved.
In those times in life when everything else is falling apart, the good news you need is that God is with you, the good news from Hebrews 13: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
But the gospel is also supposed to make a difference in our lives. We Christians are called to see every person as a beloved child of God, to treat everyone with grace and kindness, but we’re also called to stand for something.
We are opposed to sin. If we want to be on God’s side, we need to oppose evil and work for good, for justice and peace. We pray for God’s kingdom to come, and we participate in God’s will being done.
The problem is, most of the time, most of us are pretty comfortable. And we don’t like being afflicted. If standing up for God means standing up against something else, that starts to sound political, divisive, and uncomfortable. It sounds like rocking the boat, like it might make someone upset. There’s a reason the list of topics to avoid at dinner includes religion along with politics and money!
The temptation for pastors and for all of us as Christians is to only say what people want to hear. We all like when people like us; comfortable feels good.
But if my sermons never challenge you, never make you uncomfortable, then I’ve failed as a preacher. Jesus’ ministry was disruptive. His parables made people uncomfortable. He challenged people to change their lives, and sometimes his challenges weren’t subtle. Sometimes he flipped tables. He challenged the people in power so much that they killed him. If Jesus’ words never make you uncomfortable, I’m afraid it’s not Jesus you’re listening to.
Following Jesus sometimes requires taking positions not everyone will like. Yet as the prophet Jeremiah says in that first reading, “If I refuse to speak the word of the Lord, it is like there is a burning fire shut up in my bones. The opposition around me waits for me to stumble, wondering if I can be bribed, or frightened into silence. But the Lord is with me, delivering me from the evildoers.”
Jeremiah’s message is divisive. He calls people to act with justice, to defend the rights of the needy, (5:18), to stop taking advantage of immigrants, orphans, and widows (7:6), stop worshiping their idols; and people don’t like it.
Jeremiah gets arrested, beaten, put in the stocks, even thrown down a well. But he can’t stop proclaiming the word of the Lord, calling God’s people to follow God’s commands.
Centuries later, Jesus knows his message is divisive. He knows it will lead to the cross.
Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 10 picks up from last week. As Jesus sends out his disciples, he warns them, I’m sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves. In today’s section he says the message of the gospel will divide families, setting parents against children. Following Jesus involves taking up a cross, and a cross is a method of execution.
The world doesn’t like being challenged. We’ve seen recently how uncomfortable it is when the usually hidden realities of racism are brought out into the light, recorded and aired out for all to see. People don’t like being told to love their enemies, or to put their neighbors ahead of themselves. People don’t like Jesus accepting the wrong people, forgiving people who don’t deserve it.
And yet no matter how much the world hates it, God’s message cannot be silenced. No matter how much the world proclaims captivity to sin, the Gospel of liberation breaks through.
No matter how much the world declares you are alone, abandoned, Jesus still comes to prove God’s love for you, still comes to welcome you. No matter how much the world insists the future is hopeless, that it’s all downhill from here, Jesus keeps promising a better kingdom is coming.
No matter how much the world demands we be separated, divided by class, by race, by political party, by vocation, no matter how much the world bribes us with wealth and temporary power, with shiny products promising to fulfill our needs for just a few monthly payments, no matter how much the world bids us to gaze at entertainment so we won’t see the needs of our neighbors and the flaws of the systems around us, the Holy Spirit burns within us.
God’s word burns within us, calling us, sometimes dragging us, to speak the truth to a world that needs to hear it, the truth that the ways of this world cannot provide satisfaction, this world cannot provide eternal life, the truth that God’s kingdom is breaking in among us here and now, transforming this world.
The violence and hatred this world uses to separate us and shame us and divide us cannot prevail against the God who has entered into the world in the person of Jesus Christ who gave his very life out of love for you and me and the world.
This world can do its worst, but it cannot prevail against the God who knows every hair on your head, who values even half-penny sparrows.
This truth of God’s love is good news, the greatest news in history. But it’s also controversial. People don’t like being told they need a savior. People don’t like having their sins brought to light, or their brokenness revealed.
Jesus knows the God he reveals is disruptive, dangerous to the people who are comfortable, the people who benefit from the world’s brokenness.
The God he proclaims is dangerous. People don’t always realize that at first. We all like the idea of God coming in judgment, but only if God’s going to judge the people we don’t like. I love the idea of God being on my side, but even Jeremiah, who’s pretty confident God is on his side, says God is on the side of the needy, the humble, the ones in distress.
If I’m honest, I’m more likely to be the one benefitting from the way this world works right now. I have enough food, I have money in the bank. Compared to much of the world, I have a pretty comfortable life.
I’m trying not to catch Covid, but if I get it, I’m not that worried, because I’m in good health, I have insurance, and I know I’ll be treated well in good hospitals if necessary.
I don’t need to march in the streets to convince people that my life matters, because the world’s systems are set up to benefit me. I may still be paying for it, but it wasn’t difficult for me to get a good education. I have the privilege that my life will stay pretty much the same regardless of any Supreme Court rulings.
And yet, too often I don’t use my voice, my privileged position in the world because I’m afraid of what others will say. Too often I’m afraid of offending people with the Gospel – that’s my confession for you today.
I find comfort in the Gospel, but I probably should be finding a bit more challenge. Perhaps that’s also true for you.
Maybe you are in the position today where what you most need to hear is that God has counted every hair on your head.
Maybe you desperately need to hear the promise that God cares for you far more than any sparrow, and trust Jesus, God knows and cares for all the sparrows. Do not be afraid, for you are of more value than many sparrows.
Or maybe you’re like me, and you could use a little afflicting, a little stirring up. Perhaps you need to hear that following Jesus means standing up for life, standing against systems and judgments that oppress people, recognizing where you’ve benefited at the expense of others and working to make it right. Following Jesus means taking up a cross.
I don’t know the original source, but I’ve seen this cited as a Franciscan blessing, and I invite you this week to reflect on it.
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain to joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
Amen.