Grace and Peace to you from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Doing what is right is not always easy. Sometimes we need to do things that are not popular or speak out when we see injustice. Sometimes we are called to speak truth to power. Sometimes when we do this or when we are called to do this, they are minor things, like speaking out when we see a friend cheating on a test or when we see someone saying something unkind or mean to a friend. Other times we are called the speak out and to act out against insurmountable odds.
Our readings today speak to just such a time. In our reading from Jeremiah we hear one of the laments when Jeremiah calls out against God upset angry and frustrated with the fact that God has called him to do a difficult thing. God has called Jeremiah to speak truth, a painful truth, to the people of Israel. Jeremiah has been called to warn them against the sins that they are committing and warns them that God will see the wrongs they have done and will punish them for it. Jeremiah was a Prophet for 40 years, and he continually preached the truth God told him to preach, yet he did not see any change amongst the people. He also did not see God's wrath come down. Jeremiah preached and proclaimed the will of God and God's judgment on the people of Israel, and he saw and heard people ignore him, laugh at him, and laugh at God.
Jeremiah is frustrated. In this lament Jeremiah calls out God and says God you seduced me. And I fell for it. You gave me words to speak and I spoke them, but people mocked me for it. When I try to hold my tongue, when I try to not speak the words you give me, when I try to just live a normal life to not make waves your word ignites a fire not just in my stomach but burns me to the bones and I can't stop from proclaiming it.
Even Jeremiah's friends make fun of him, even his friends plot against Jeremiah, trying to get him to fail, trying to get him to give up preaching the scary truths God has told him to preach. But Jeremiah knows that God is trustworthy, that those things God has told him will come to be will indeed happen. Jeremiah sees a future in which God will exact revenge not only on the Israelites for their sin but for their sin of not listening to the prophets, not changing their ways for mocking the Prophet. If only it was that easy.
In our Psalm today we need here another lament. The Psalm writer is also experiencing the same things Jeremiah is experiencing. Because of proclaiming God’s will, God’s work, and God’s view for the future the writer is mocked, their name is made a curse. God's word is mocked. The writer calls out to God in their distress asking God to be with them and to give an answer.
In both readings, we hear the fight of the conscience. Jeremiah and the psalmist both know what is right to do, they both know what God's will is for them, and they are both terrified. God does not always ask us to do that which is easy, but God always asks us to do what is right. We do what is right, we know what is right, by the working of the spirit.
We hear this again in our gospel reading for today. Jesus is talking to his disciples and telling them that a servant is not above their master, a student is not above the teacher, but it is enough for the student to be like the teacher and the servant to do the will of the master. Jesus calls on his disciples to be like him and do the things he does and to do those things that God has willed for them to do. It is not going to be an easy task. The people who mocked Jesus and called him the Prince of lies, Beelzebub, will not spare the students. But because they are the disciples of the son of God, they will be rejected, subject to mockery, insults, and even death. It is terrifying stuff. Where was that easy yoke that Jesus talked about?
In our gospel reading, Jesus says three separate times do not be afraid or have No Fear. Jesus is not saying that things will not be scary that there will not be pain that there will not be suffering that there will not be death. But Jesus is saying that what is hidden will be revealed; nothing can remain hidden. Because of this the disciples are told what is whispered to them they must go out and shout it from the rooftops. What Jesus reveals to them at night they should go out and proclaim in the streets during the day. This sounds a lot like what Jeremiah is experiencing. Jeremiah hears God and even though he wants to keep the message, the will, the wrath, and the judgment of God silent for fear of other people, he cannot keep it in. He cannot remain silent. He is compelled to share the word of God. That seems to be a foreign idea to us. We live in a culture and in a time in which we're told that we're masters of our own fate that we can choose their own path. We live in a culture that believes in individualism, personal choice, personal wealth, and personal reward. Everything is “me, me, me.” That is part of why these texts today can be uncomfortable. Three different authors telling us that if we want to be free from sin we must be bound up with Christ.
The reading from Romans is one that I have used in several funerals. It is a good summary of what we as Lutherans believe about baptism what the church teaches about baptism. Many of us, when we are at a funeral, we hear the words of the service, but we do not always pay attention to them. It is a challenging time in our lives, none of us enjoy being at funerals. But there's incredible beauty in our funeral services, yes, they are filled with morning, but they are also filled with hope. When we bury someone our service mirrors baptism. Just like in our baptism services we talk about death. In baptism the old self the sinful self-dies. We are baptized in the water into Jesus death and we are freed from sin. And if we have been united in a death like Christ's, then God who makes all things new, will Unite us in a resurrection like Jesus.
On this our first Sunday back worshiping in the church together, I wanted to proclaim a jubilant joyful message. But I know, that while there's rejoicing at being able to worship together, today is also filled with sadness. We are so close and yet so far away. We are back to worshipping in a familiar place saying words that are familiar to us, but some things are not the same. We cannot sing, we cannot share the peace, let us be honest communion is going to be weird, and our tradition of joining together for fellowship after the service is also missing. And some of us are still not more able to be here. I know that some of you are unhappy about this, I know that some of you feel like this is not the way you wanted to come back to serve us. I know it was not the way that I was hoping or planning for. But the reality is if we wanted to wait until we could celebrate in the old ways, we might be waiting quite a while. When we read the news there are many communities that are coming together as though things have never changed these have led to outbreaks and death. One of the odd things about the coronavirus is the fact that so many people who contract it we will never know that they were infected, but they can pass on the disease to others who might show symptoms and might even die.
I also know that some of you might not have been happy about the sermons or the services I have led recently. I know of other pastors who have been fired from their congregations; I also know congregations that are looking at leaving their denominations over the church’s recent repentance and remembrance of the sin of racism.
If you want to talk about it, I'm open to talk to you about it. Even though it is scary for me to preach a message that I know is not always popular I will continue to preach, God's love for all of creation, God choosing to be with the poor the oppressed and those who suffer. I will continue to preach the cross. Yes, the cross brings us salvation. But first it is an indictment. The cross condemns us and condemns the world for the ways in which we brutalize, we devalue, and we murder the vulnerable, the marginalized, and the poor. The cross indicts us for trusting in our own reasoning and in our own power instead of God's will and God's word. The cross indicts us just as much as it indicted the people of Israel and the Roman Empire. We read in our gospels that above the cross a plaque was hung that said here is Jesus King of the Jews son of God. The cross indicts us because we attempt to kill God. Yet it is that same cross that indicts us that also saves us when we come to recognize that truly is God on the cross coming to earth as a sinless, vulnerable, despised, and abused person.
Doing what is right is not always easy. Martin Luther knew this when at the Diet of Wurms, he was asked to repent and recant all he had taught. This was early in Luther's career as a monk and as a professor. Luther would say things later in his life that made what he said earlier on in his life look tame. Luther thought he was just going to tell the church about their mistakes and the church would correct their teachings. Luther was naive. And so there at the Diet of Wurms Luther is said, “I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; God help me! Amen.”
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 pain, rejection, hunger, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
In the name of the Triune + God. Amen.