This is from a few years ago, but as our Standing Committee begins a process of visioning for the Church in Nevada, I thought this might bear remembering.
Today’s lessons challenge Christians to
engage the world.
In Jeremiah, God tells the young prophet
that
he isn’t here by chance.
God has created him for a purpose.
“Before
I formed you in the womb I knew you.
And before you were born I consecrated you.”
So God had a mission in mind for Jeremiah.
But
the nature of the mission was a bit of a surprise.
God said, “I appointed you a prophet to the
nations.”
By “the nations” he means the gentiles.
Jeremiah the Jew was to proclaim God’s
message
not
to the chosen people but to the gentile world.
Fast forward 800 years to our Gospel lesson.
Jesus has just told the synagogue in his
hometown
that
the Holy Spirit has anointed him
“to
proclaim good news to the poor,
release
to the captives, . . .
and
to let the oppressed go free.”
The hometown folks have said, ok that’s us.
Do something for us.
But Jesus said he was sent to those outside.
He reminded them God did not send Elijah the
prophet
to
a good Jewish widow to bless her,
but
rather to the widow of Zarephath,
a
foreigner in an enemy land.
The prophet Elisha did not heal any good
Jewish lepers.
Instead he healed an enemy soldier from
Syria.
That’s when they ran Jesus out of town.
The people wanted something different from
religion
than
what Jesus had to offer.
We need to look at that carefully
because
a lot of Christians are looking
for
the same thing the people of Nazareth wanted
–
not what Jesus has to offer.
Jesus doesn’t come to fix our problems
so
we can get on with our own life projects.
He comes to give us a new life project – a
mission of mercy
to
a broken world.
The great German theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer
practiced
what Jesus preached.
He was safe in America during World War II
but
he voluntarily choose to go back to Germany
to
support the part of the church that opposed Hitler.
He died by hanging on April 9, 1945 in a
concentration camp.
Bonheoffer called Jesus “the man for others.”
He meant Jesus did not make his decisions for
his own success.
Jesus gave himself for the world around him.
As a follower of Jesus, Bonhoeffer did the
same thing.
In last week’s gospel lesson
we
saw that Jesus was not about himself.
He was about the poor, the outcast, the prisoner,
the
handicapped, the oppressed.
In today’s lesson, we see that his mission is
not for the benefit
of
those near and dear to him, his family and friends.
Jesus had never heard the proverb “charity
begins at home.”
The reason he never heard it is
that
Sir Thomas Browne did not compose it until 1642.
Even Sir Thomas did not say it was the truth.
He said “’charity begins at home,’ is the
voice of the world.”
For Jesus, charity did not begin with himself
or
even with his own people in the synagogue.
It began with outsiders, the folks he did not
know.
So what’s that got to do with us?
We are the Body of Christ in the world today.
St. Augustine said,
“Christ
died that the Church might be born.”
St. Theresa of
Avila said,
“Christ has no body now but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but
yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now but yours.”
If Jesus was “the man for others,” that makes
us,
what
Fr. Jim Beebe at St. Patrick’s calls,
“the
Church for others.”
Fr. Bill Cowans sent me a
riddle this week.
“What’s the difference between the Church and
a yacht club?”
Both use nautical terms. Nave is a word for
ship.
Yachts are powered by wind
and
we are powered by the Holy Spirit.
The Church is a lot like a yacht club with
one basic difference
–
its reason for existing.
The yacht club exists for the benefit of its
members.
The Church exists for the benefit of others
–
the people who don’t belong.
Most religions don’t work this way.
Most religions are about how we can escape
from
the world’s hardships and struggles.
Most religions try to pray and meditate their
way to serenity.
They form sanctuaries from stress.
But Christianity leads us deeper into the
heart of the world,
with
all its pain and travail.
The person who represents the Church in Scripture
and in legend
is
Saint Peter.
The legend of Quo Vadis is set in Rome at the time mad Nero
was
slaughtering Christians.
The story goes that hundreds of Christians
were escaping
the
persecution along the Appian Way.
Old Peter was in the midst of them hurrying
away
from
Rome, the deadly earthly city.
But then he met Jesus on the road,
only
Jesus was going the opposite direction.
Peter said, “Quo vadis. Domine” – “Lord where are you going?”
The Risen Lord answered, “To Rome -- to be
crucified again.”
So Peter turned and followed Jesus back to
Rome
where
he too was crucified.”
Maybe that’s just a legend.
But Dietrich Bonheoffer is history.
And isn’t it really the same story?
Theologian John Douglas Hall tells us the
moral
of
the Quo Vadis story.
He says,
“Faith
in . . . Jesus Christ . . .
is
a journey toward the world.”
But Peter represents the Church.
He shows us our natural tendency to turn our
back
on
the world as he turned his back on Rome.
It is our natural tendency to turn inward,
to
become a mutual support society.
We should support each other.
But Jesus leads us back into the world.
That means proclaiming the good news in word
and deed.
There are people around us who cannot hear the
gospel
in
the ways other churches present it.
God has entrusted them to us.
They are ours to invite, to welcome, and to befriend.
It would be so much easier to sell the brand
of religion
that
says if you get your mind right and say the right prayer,
God
will make you rich and happy.
That’s not what we have to offer.
We have the way of the cross.
The way of the cross is to follow Jesus
with
his way of compassion
into
a world we might prefer to escape.
We want to run away, like Peter.
But Jesus says the only way out is through.
Our way of salvation is the way of caring.
It is participating in the world with wisdom
and grace
that
transforms us into the likeness of our Lord
and
prepares us to be with him in eternity.
Following our Lord into the world may sound
like
a dramatic, heroic thing
But it’s really very simple, very ordinary.
It takes two basic things.
The first is to look at everyone we meet
with
the compassion of Christ.
We set aside our judgements
and
look at people, all people,
as
beloved children of God,
to
befriend them and care for them
as
our brothers and sisters.
The second is to to claim the name of Jesus
wherever
we go.
We don’t have to preach at people.
We don’t have to tell them what they ought to
do.
It can be as simple as mentioning where we
worship
and
saying a word or two about how it helps us.
We don’t have to twist anyone’s arm or give
them advice.
We can just admit our own faith,
confess
that we pray,
acknowledge that the sacraments nourish our
souls.
When we go into the world
with
the mercy of God in our hearts
and
the name of Jesus on our lips,
we
are following the way of the cross.
It is a simple way, but not an easy one.
Befriending this world can be costly.
Look at Dietrich Bonhoeffer and St. Peter.
It is sometimes a hard way,
but
it is the way to everlasting life.
